Eclipse HIP

HIP (Hierarchical IOT Protocol) is a communication protocol designed to increase the scalability and interoperability of large scale IOT deployments and includes specifications for both Platform Side (e.g. SaaS solution) and Deployment Side (e.g. sensors and actuators in a "smart building") messaging. Core concepts within the protocol are Aggregators - which allow for "deployment-side" data processing, Commanders and Delegators (previously referred to as Brokers), which provide local (again,deployment-side) control of actuators and Health messaging which can be used in conjunction with Configuration messages to identify over and under utilised devices and spread roles across them.

Aggregators provide for a Hierarchical structure across a deployment, where relevent data from one or more sensors can be processed locally before being uploaded to the Platform. In theory, this enables data from unlimited numbers of sensors to be processed and fully addresses the practical issues within the scope of Fog computing. (Fog Computing refers to extending cloud computing to the edge of an enterprise's network)

The scope of the protocol includes all aspects of the configuration and management of a deployment. Health messages can be sent from devices to the platform to identify potential bottlenecks while Configuration messges can be used to transfer "roles" from under resourced device to devices with spare capacity. Functionality (or HIP roles) can be added or removed from devices through the use of "handler" messages, which include Base64 encoded compiled or interpreted classes or scripts.

The protocol is based around a number of defined roles which can be added or removed from individual devices. Each role has a specific set of messages associated with it.

To date MQTT has been used to implement the majority of the messaging (some REST APIs and websocket communication to support user-facing tools has been included but can possibly be considered optional)