The first time you capture ICCP traffic in Wireshark, the protocol column reads like an archaeology dig: TCP, then TPKT, then COTP, then Session, Presentation, ACSE, MMS. Seven layers deep before a single power system value appears. This article explains what each layer does, why the stack looks like this, and — since this is where commissioning time… Read More »
Every ICCP datasheet says the same thing: “supports blocks 1, 2, and 5” or some variation. Conformance blocks are how TASE.2 capability is packaged, sold, tested, and written into bilateral agreements. They’re also where datasheets, the wire protocol, and the standard itself quietly disagree. This article decodes each block, explains why nearly half of them were deleted from… Read More »
Every ICCP link runs on a pair of bilateral tables. They decide who may connect, what they may see, and what they may do. They are also the single most common reason a new ICCP link doesn’t work on day one — not the protocol, not the network, the tables. This article covers what a bilateral table is,… Read More »
ICCP is the protocol utility control centers use to talk to each other. Not to substations. Not to RTUs. To other control centers: the neighboring utility, the regional transmission operator, the power pool, an independent generator’s dispatch center. Its official name is TASE.2, the Telecontrol Application Service Element 2. The standard behind it is the IEC 60870-6 series,… Read More »
AMQP 0.9.1 is a message-oriented protocol that defines both a wire-level exchange format and a specific server model with exchanges, queues, bindings, and routing rules. It is best known as the native protocol of RabbitMQ, which is the most widely-deployed open source message broker in the world. Despite being called “legacy” in some OASIS documentation, AMQP 0.9.1 remains… Read More »
MQTT has always been data-agnostic. The broker treats the payload of every PUBLISH as an opaque byte string, forwards it verbatim, and never looks inside. That is one of the protocol’s core strengths — it means MQTT can carry anything without the broker needing to understand it. But it is also historically one of its weaknesses. In MQTT… Read More »
AMQP is a wire-level messaging protocol standardized by OASIS and adopted as an ISO/IEC standard, designed for reliable, interoperable messaging between applications and messaging systems. Unlike protocols that assume a particular server model, AMQP 1.0 defines only the protocol between peers: what a message looks like on the wire, how it is transferred, and how delivery is negotiated.… Read More »
If you are picking a messaging protocol for a new system, MQTT and AMQP are two of the most commonly-considered candidates. Both are mature, both have large ecosystems, and both are used in production at very large scale. But they were designed for different problems, and the comparison is more nuanced than most articles suggest — because AMQP… Read More »
If you are building something that needs to move data between clients and servers in real time — device telemetry, live dashboards, push notifications, chat, multiplayer state — you have several protocols to choose from, and HTTP and MQTT are two of the most common. On paper they look like alternatives; in practice they solve different problems well,… Read More »
If you have decided that MQTT is the right protocol for your project and now need to pick a broker to run it on, the good news is that the three most widely-used options are open source. The bad news is that “open source” hides some important differences: license type, what “free” actually covers, what you get in… Read More »