MQ Telemetry

MQ Telemetry comprises a telemetry (MQXR) service that is part of a queue manager, telemetry clients that you can write yourself or download for free, and command line and explorer administrative interfaces. Telemetry refers to collecting data from and administering a wide range of remote devices. With MQ Telemetry you can integrate the collection of data and control of devices with web applications.

MQ Telemetry is a component of IBM® WebSphere® MQ 7.1, and later. Upgrading for these versions is essentially installing a later version of IBM MQ.

However, from IBM MQ 8.0 onwards, the Client Software Development Kit is no longer supplied as part of the product. Similar sample applications continue to be freely available from Eclipse Paho and MQTT.org. See IBM MQ Telemetry Transport sample programs.

Because MQ Telemetry is a component of IBM WebSphere MQ 7.1 and later, MQ Telemetry can either be installed with the main product, or installed after the main product has been installed. For migration information, see Migrating MQ Telemetry on Windows and Migrating MQ Telemetry on Linux®.

Included in MQ Telemetry are the following components:

Telemetry channels: Use telemetry channels to manage the connection of MQTT clients to IBM MQ . Telemetry channels use new IBM MQ objects, such as the SYSTEM.MQTT.TRANSMIT.QUEUE, to interact with IBM MQ.
Telemetry (MQXR) service: MQTT clients use the SYSTEM.MQXR.SERVICE telemetry service to connect to telemetry channels.
IBM MQ Explorer support for MQ Telemetry: MQ Telemetry can be administered using IBM MQ Explorer.
Documentation: MQ Telemetry documentation is included in the standard IBM MQ product documentation from IBM WebSphere MQ 7.1 . SDK documentation for Java and C clients is provided in the product documentation, and as Javadoc and HTML.

Telemetry concepts

You collect information from the environment all around you to decide what to do. As a consumer, you check what you have in store, before deciding about what food to buy. You want to know how long a journey is going to take if you leave now, before booking a connection. You check your symptoms, before deciding whether to visit the doctor. You check when a bus is going to arrive, before deciding whether to wait. The information for those decisions comes directly from meters and devices, from the written word on paper or from a screen, and from you. Where ever you are, and when ever you need to, you collect information, bring it together, analyze it, and act upon it.

If the sources of information are widely dispersed or inaccessible, it becomes difficult and costly to collect the most accurate information. If there are many changes you want to make, or it is difficult to make the changes, then the changes do not get made, or are made when they are less effective.

What if the costs of collecting information from, and controlling, widely dispersed devices is greatly reduced by connecting the devices with digital technology to the internet? The information can be analyzed using the resources of the internet and the enterprise. You have more opportunities to make informed decisions and act upon them.

Technological trends, and environmental and economic pressures, are driving these changes to happen:

The cost of connecting and controlling sensors and actuators is reducing, due to standardization and connection to low cost digital processors.
The internet, and internet technologies, are increasingly used to connect devices. In some countries, mobile phones exceed personal computers in the number of connections to internet applications. Other devices are surely following.
The internet, and internet technologies, make it much easier for an application to get data. Easy access to data is driving the use of data analytics to turn data from sensors into information that is useful in many more solutions.
Intelligent use of resources is often a quicker and cheaper way of reducing carbon emissions and costs. The alternatives: finding new resources, or developing new technologies to use existing resources, might be the long-term solution. In the short term developing new technologies, or finding new resources, is often riskier, slower, and more costly, than improving existing solutions.

Example

An example shows how these trends create new opportunities to interact with the environment intelligently.

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) requires Automatic Identification System (AIS) to be deployed on many ships. It is required on merchant ships over 300 tons and passenger ships. AIS is primarily a collision avoidance system for coastal shipping. It is used by marine authorities to monitor and control coastal waters.

Enthusiasts around the world are deploying low-cost AIS tracking stations and placing coastal shipping information onto the internet. Other enthusiasts are writing applications that combine information from AIS with other information from the internet. The results are put on Web sites, and published using Twitter and SMS.

In one application, information from AIS stations near Southampton is combined with ship ownership and geographical information. The application feeds live information about ferry arrivals and departures to Twitter. Regular commuters using the ferries between Southampton and the Isle of Wight subscribe to the news feed using Twitter or SMS. If the feed shows their ferry is running late, commuters can delay their departure and catch the ferry when it docks later than its scheduled arrival time.

For more examples, see Telemetry use cases.