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Open Source IoT Platforms & Protocols

A collection of open-source tools, resources, and platforms for building Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.

Resources & Aggregators​

IoT Protocols​

  • HTTP RESTful: Standard web interface for IoT.
  • MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport): Lightweight publish/subscribe messaging.
  • WebSocket: Full-duplex communication over a single TCP connection.
  • CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol): Wikipedia

Major IoT Platforms​

IoTivity​

  • iotivity/iotivity
    • License: Apache 2.0 | Language: C++, C, Java, Python | Tech: OCF Standards
    • IoTivity is an open-source framework implementing Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) standards for secure device-to-device communication.

Eclipse Mosquitto​

  • eclipse/mosquitto
    • License: EPL 2.0 / EDL 1.0 | Language: C, C++ | Tech: MQTT Broker
    • An open-source message broker that implements the MQTT protocol (versions 5.0, 3.1.1, and 3.1).

ThingsBoard​

  • thingsboard/thingsboard
    • License: Apache 2.0 | Language: Java | Tech: Spring Boot, NoSQL (Cassandra/PostgreSQL)
    • Device management, data collection, processing, and visualization. Supports multi-tenancy and horizontal scalability.

Kaa IoT Platform​

  • kaaproject/kaa
    • License: Apache 2.0 | Language: Go, Java, TypeScript | Tech: Microservices, Digital Twins
    • A highly flexible middleware platform for developing end-to-end IoT solutions, featuring device management and data analytics.

Mainflux (Now Magistrala)​

  • mainflux/mainflux
    • License: Apache 2.0 | Language: Go | Tech: Docker, Microservices
    • Industrial IoT messaging and device management server designed to be highly secure and scalable.

Apache iota (Incubating)​

  • Apache iota
    • Language: Python (Django), Scala (Spark) | Tech: Spark, Redis, Kafka, CockroachDB
    • Built to ingest, analyze, and orchestrate IoT data in a highly distributed and performant fashion.

Specialized Tools & Frameworks​

  • tibcosoftware/flogo
    • License: BSD-3-Clause | Language: Go | Tech: Serverless, Edge computing
    • An open-source ecosystem dedicated to simplifying the creation of event-driven, serverless functions and edge microservices.

OpenThread​

  • openthread/openthread
    • License: BSD-3-Clause | Language: C++ | Tech: Thread Networking Protocol
    • OpenThread is an open-source implementation of the Thread networking protocol by Google, targeted at connected home/building products.

Eclipse Kapua​

  • Eclipse Kapua
    • Tech: Java, Modular IoT Cloud
    • A modular IoT cloud platform to manage and integrate devices and their data efficiently.

Thinger.io​

  • thinger-io/thinger.io
    • License: MIT | Language: C++ (Client lib) | Tech: Cloud IoT Platform
    • Helps users prototype, scale, and manage connected products with bidirectional communication tools.

Self-Hosted / Service Categories​

  • Self-host: Hosting the entire platform on private infrastructure.
  • Self-service: Managed platforms with self-service capabilities.
  • Self-center / Self-iot: Focus on user-centric or decentralized IoT models.