CoAP Protocol: Lightweight IoT Messaging for NB-IoT

As IoT devices shrink in size and power, they require protocols that are lighter than traditional web standards. Enter CoAP, a protocol designed to bring the simplicity of HTTP to constrained devices and networks.

What is CoAP?, How CoAP Works, CoAP vs MQTT.

CoAP is a lightweight, UDP-based protocol optimized for low-power IoT. It mirrors HTTP concepts like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, making it familiar for developers, but strips away unnecessary overhead.

Key features include:

• Small headers for minimal bandwidth use.
• Confirmable/non-confirmable messaging (choose reliability when needed).
• Optional keep-alives, reducing unnecessary power drain.
• Built-in support for multicast messaging.
  
  

Relevance to NB-IoT

Because CoAP uses UDP instead of TCP, it avoids the constant connection overhead that plagues MQTT. This makes it much more efficient for NB-IoT battery-powered devices, where bandwidth and energy must be conserved.

Common Use Cases

• Smart agriculture (soil sensors, irrigation).
• Remote monitoring (water, gas, and power meters).
• Healthcare devices (wearables, patient monitoring).
  
  

Key Takeaways

CoAP strikes a balance between web-friendliness and IoT efficiency. It’s ideal for NB-IoT when devices need to send small amounts of data intermittently without burning through battery life.