Real Time Communication Platform : Using ARM Cortex M7 and MQTT

Abstract: Microcontroller platforms are heavily used in embedded solutions adopted in nearly every industry covering a wide range of applications and use cases. In the paper and pulp industry the change prompted by the rising popularity of data decentralisation, big data analysis and machine learning, forces companies to upgrade or renew old platforms used to collect and analyse data. This thesis will evaluate a generation change for a communication platform that collects data from a sensor, its capabilities regarding secure communication over TCP/IP with the possibility to implement an efficient machine-to-machine communication protocol. The main focus of the evaluation is development, implementation and integration of software for the embedded system with a real time operating system using the ARM Cortex M7. Using small open source tools and the powerful ARM core we were able to build a small, flexible, real time system that publishes sensor data over MQTT securely using TCP/IP and TLS.