Press Release

OASIS MQTT Internet of Things Standard Now Approved by ISO/IEC JTC1

Boston, MA, USA; 19 July 2016 — MQTT, a foundational Internet of Things (IoT) standard developed by the OASIS consortium, has now been approved for release by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Version 3.1.1 of MQTT was balloted through the Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology (JTC1) of ISO and IEC and given the designation ‘ISO/IEC 20922’.

MQTT defines an extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport protocol. Because it requires significantly less bandwidth and is so easy to implement, MQTT is well suited for IoT applications where resources such as battery power and bandwidth are at a premium. The range of MQTT applications continues to grow. In the healthcare sector, practitioners use the protocol to communicate with bio-medical devices such as blood pressure monitors. Oil and gas companies use MQTT to monitor thousands of miles of pipelines. MQTT is emerging as a fundamental enabler for telematics, infotainment, and other connected vehicle applications. MQTT is also becoming increasingly popular for interactive mobile applications.

“The ISO/IEC approval of MQTT is an exciting milestone, signaling to the world that interoperable IoT solutions can be built with confidence on an open standard foundational transport,” said Richard Coppen of IBM, co-chair of the OASIS MQTT Technical Committee.

Brian Raymor of Microsoft Corp., who recently joined Coppen as Committee co-chair, agrees, “Standards such as MQTT are critical in allowing enterprises to connect their assets. ISO and IEC’s support for MQTT provides validation for the international community, and the ISO/IEC 20922 publication promises to accelerate the pace of adoption even more.”

The convenor of the ISO/IEC JTC1 Working Group on the Internet of Things, Sangkeun Yoo, commented that “One of the Committee’s roles is to collaborate with other organizations that are also developing standards in this area. Therefore, ISO/IEC JTC1 WG 10 is pleased to have the OASIS MQTT as an ISO/IEC Standard to advance IoT implementation.”

Original co-designer of MQTT and Distinguished Engineer for IBM Watson Internet of Things, Andy Stanford-Clark said, “I am delighted to see that, thanks to its spectacular adoption in the IoT world, MQTT has attained this significant milestone. This positions the protocol perfectly to underpin the modern IoT ecosystem, supporting businesses and organizations in their journey towards a truly connected world. The additional scrutiny required for international recognition confirms the protocol as an open and solid IoT technology.”

Giles Nelson, Senior VP at Software AG, said, “MQTT being added to ISO/IEC standards is a major step forward that further solidifies its foothold as a standard messaging protocol and makes it ideal for large-scale Internet of Things applications.”

MQTT 3.1.1 was ratified as an OASIS Standard in October 2014 and subsequently submitted by OASIS to the ISO/IEC JTC 1 Information Technology body. As ISO/IEC 20922, this International Standard will continue to be maintained and advanced by the OASIS MQTT Technical Committee, which includes representatives of Cisco, IBM, Infiswift, Microsoft, Software AG, TIBCO, and others. New members are welcome.

About ISO/IEC JTC 1
JTC 1 is the standards development environment where experts come together to develop worldwide Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Standards for business and consumer applications. Since 1987, ISO/IEC JTC 1 has brought about a number of very successful and relevant information and communication technologies (ICT) Standards in many fields: IC cards (smart cards), automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) technologies, information security, biometrics, cloud computing, multimedia (MPEG), database query and programming languages as well as character sets, to name just a few.

About OASIS
OASIS is a non-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society. OASIS promotes industry consensus and produces worldwide standards for IoT, security, cloud computing, content technologies, energy, and other areas. OASIS open standards offer the potential to lower cost, stimulate innovation, grow global markets, and protect the right of free choice of technology. OASIS members broadly represent the marketplace of public and private sector technology leaders, users, and influencers. The consortium has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 65+ countries.

OASIS press contact: Carol Geyer, carol.geyer@oasis-open.org +1.941.284.0403