CONNECTIVITY
IoT Connectivity
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, Thread, MQTT: none of them is the best protocol. Each is the best for a specific range, power budget, and data volume.
The fastest way to pick the wrong connectivity protocol is to start from what's newest instead of what the device actually needs. A door sensor reporting twice a day, a security camera streaming continuously, and a factory sensor polled every second have almost nothing in common in terms of power budget or bandwidth, and the right protocol follows from those constraints, not from a trend.
Three questions get most of the way to an answer: how often the device transmits, how far the signal needs to travel and through what, and whether the device runs on battery or mains power. The full decision guide below walks through typical range and power figures for each major protocol side by side.
