A fundamental advantage of MQTT is that data is sent to a central “broker” instead of being directly transmitted to multiple clients such as remote interfaces or management software. The MQTT broker is responsible for maintaining client connections and sending/receiving messages.

Client devices, edge gateways, and IT applications (or publishers/subscribers in MQTT language), are freed up to focus on producing and consuming data. This division of labor greatly enhances scalability. This small footprint means the HMI can be configured as both an edge gateway and an MQTT broker, reducing the need for additional hardware.