AiVibeSparkplug B
Sparkplug B is an open specification, maintained by the Eclipse Foundation, that defines an MQTT topic namespace, payload encoding and state management rules so that industrial devices and applications can interoperate over MQTT.
Sparkplug defines a fixed topic structure beginning with the namespace spBv1.0, followed by a group ID, a message type and an edge node ID, with an optional device ID. Message types include birth certificates (NBIRTH, DBIRTH) that announce all metrics an edge node or device will publish, data messages (NDATA, DDATA) reporting changes, commands (NCMD, DCMD) and death certificates (NDEATH, DDEATH). Payloads are encoded with Google Protocol Buffers and carry metric names, data types, timestamps and sequence numbers.
Sparkplug addresses gaps in plain MQTT for industrial use: it standardises payloads so applications understand data without custom parsing, makes devices self-describing through birth certificates, and uses MQTT's last will mechanism so subscribers know when data is stale. Report-by-exception publishing reduces bandwidth. It is used to connect PLCs, gateways and edge devices to SCADA, historians and unified namespace architectures.
The specification was originally created by Cirrus Link Solutions and is now developed by the Eclipse Sparkplug Working Group, with a compatibility test kit for implementations. Its binary payloads are less human-readable than JSON, and its fixed topic structure differs from free-form hierarchies, so some architectures combine Sparkplug for device data with other conventions elsewhere. Primary host applications and state handling must be configured consistently across clients.
Key points
- Open MQTT specification maintained by the Eclipse Foundation
- Fixed topic namespace beginning with spBv1.0
- Birth and death certificates manage device state and stale data
- Payloads are encoded with Google Protocol Buffers
- Report-by-exception publishing reduces bandwidth
Where AiVibe comes in
AiAmbA IoT is AiVibe's edge protocol layer: it discovers devices and normalises industrial signals, with supported protocols including Siemens S7, Mitsubishi MC, Delta Modbus, OPC UA and MQTT, and driver availability confirmed per installation. Writes to machines are deny-by-default.
Related terms
- MQTTIndustrial IoT & Edge
- MQTT Last Will and Testament (LWT)Industrial IoT & Edge
- Unified Namespace (UNS)Industrial IoT & Edge
- Report by Exception (RBE)Industrial IoT & Edge
- MQTT BrokerIndustrial IoT & Edge
- Industrial IoT GatewayIndustrial IoT & Edge