NB-IoT for Azure or AWS? No UDP protocol

[electronic]

Is there anyone using NB-IoT to connect to Azure or AWS? Both those cloud platforms (and others) only support TCP type protocols (MQTT, AMQP, HTTP). I've read that NB-IoT doesn't provide IP, but that may be old information.

Can NB-IoT support TCP? Ignoring the higher data usage of TCP-based protocols and power consumption - can the protocol itself support it?

[jmarcelino]

@electronic
CoAP is the protocol of choice in NB-IOT and used where the carrier offers a “connected device platform” (sometimes the only option, as some operators don’t even give UDP access)

[electronic]

@jmarcelino I don't understand the source of the limitation for UDP. I understand that it's less overhead, but if TCP is technically feasible, why would carriers limit protocols.

Things like MQTT have established architectures and security. NB-IoT users are unable to simply whip up some UDP-based protocol on their own if they want to use something like IoTHub or AWS.

[jmarcelino]

@soulsurfer
Officially all I know of only support UDP as far as I know, but maybe because many are just trial setups they allow TCP to "slip" through.

Since this may or may not change in future you really need to discuss it with the carriers you're interested in.

[soulsurfer]

@jmarcelino Which (European in my case) NB-IoT service providers offer TCP?

[jmarcelino]

@electronic
That depends on your operator/service provider, usually it’s UDP only