A comparative evaluation of AMQP and MQTT protocols over unstable and mobile networks

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Message oriented middleware (MOM) refers to the software infrastructure supporting sending and receiving messages between distributed systems. AMQP and MQTT are the two most relevant protocols in this context. They are extensively used for exchanging messages since they provide an abstraction of the different participating system entities, alleviating their coordination and simplifying the communication programming details. These protocols, however, have not been thoroughly tested in the context of mobile or dynamic networks like vehicular networks. In this paper we present an experimental evaluation of both protocols in such scenarios, characterizing their behavior in terms of message loss, latency, jitter and saturation boundary values. Based on the results obtained, we provide criteria of applicability of these protocols, and we assess their performance and viability. This evaluation is of interest for the upcoming applications of MOM, especially to systems related to the Internet of Things.