Microsoft Azure IoT Hub Tiers: Choose the Right Tier for Your IoT Solution

Which IoT Hub Tier to Choose for an IoT Solution with 400 Devices and 100,000 Messages per Day?

Question

You have to build an IoT solution which gathers data from 400 devices, with the expected total load of 100000 messages per day.

Most of the devices are smart sensors, ready to connect to the IoT Hub via MQTT, but some of them need to be connected via edge devices.

You want to use advanced configurations to control the devices remotely and to distribute some logic to the edge devices.

Which of the available IoT Hub tiers should you choose and why?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

Correct Answer: C.

Option A is incorrect because regardless of the number of messages, which actually can be served by any tier, support for edge devices is needed, which is only provided by the standard tier.

Option B is incorrect because while both basic and standard tiers provide MQTT support, the key requirement here is the communication with edge devices: it is only supported by standard tier.

Option C is CORRECT because the requirement clearly states that edge devices must be connected to the IoT Hub, both for cloud-to-device communication and for the need of local computational power.

It is only the standard tier which fulfils these requirements.

Option D is incorrect because edge device support and cloud-to-device communication are only available in standard tier.

Reference:

Based on the requirements of gathering data from 400 devices with an expected total load of 100000 messages per day, and the need to use advanced configurations to control the devices remotely and to distribute some logic to the edge devices, the most suitable IoT Hub tier is the Standard tier.

The Basic tier only supports up to 8000 messages per day, which is not enough to handle the expected total load of 100000 messages per day. Therefore, the Basic tier is not a suitable option for this scenario.

The Standard tier, on the other hand, can handle up to 1 million messages per day, which is more than enough to serve the expected workload. Additionally, the Standard tier supports the MQTT protocol, which is the protocol that most of the devices in this scenario are ready to connect to the IoT Hub via. This means that the devices can be easily connected to the IoT Hub without any additional configuration.

Furthermore, the Standard tier also supports edge devices, which is a requirement in this scenario as some of the devices need to be connected via edge devices. With the Standard tier, advanced configurations can be used to control the devices remotely and to distribute some logic to the edge devices, which is not possible with the Basic tier.

Therefore, the correct answer is C. Standard tier; because it supports MQTT protocol and edge devices. Option D is also correct in the sense that either Basic or Standard tier are suitable, but C is more appropriate because it better meets the specific requirements outlined in the question.