Prototype Implementation

ComDeX is a lightweight, federated NGSI-LD broker system that leverages open-source MQTT brokers. Initially conceived as a test suite for MQTT with NGSI-LD, it has evolved into a versatile Internet of Things (IoT) platform. Compared to traditional heavyweight NGSI-LD brokers favoring HTTP as a communication protocol, ComDeX offers end-to-end MQTT capabilities, including QoS delivery guarantees. For a deep dive into our prototype, refer to our wiki.

How It Works

The ComDeX platform operates as a federation of ComDeX nodes, each consisting of two primary components: the Action Handler and an MQTT Broker.

Action Handler

The Action Handler is an API that enables various clients (producers/consumers) to perform diverse “Actions,” defined as any operation within the architecture essential for information exchange between clients and brokers. This component facilitates data context discovery (both synchronous and asynchronous) and manages data flows. While ComDeX isn’t strictly designed for NGSI-LD, our prototype implementation tries to adhere to NGSI-LD endpoints as closely as possible.

MQTT Broker

This component serves as the backbone of each ComDeX node. While Mosquitto is extensively used for testing, our solution isn’t confined to this MQTT broker. You can use any MQTT broker, provided it supports message persistence and MQTT bridges creation—two critical features for federation.