Nexma Event Broker
Multi-protocol telemetry ingest
Nexma Event Broker is the platform's real-time location layer. It ingests position and sensor updates from any protocol, streams them live to dashboards and devices, stores each point as route history, and runs spatial logic — geofences, zones, proximity — as the data flows in. One scalable layer to track millions of people, vehicles, and machines at once.
Moving objects send a constant stream of positions over many protocols. Generic message queues have no notion of space or time, so updates arrive unordered, unlinked to the map, and impossible to replay as a route. The Event Broker is purpose-built for the opposite: every update is a typed spatial event with a position and a timestamp, ordered and ready to render.
Core concepts
- Spatial event. A single update — a position, a sensor reading, an alert — normalized from its source protocol into a typed record carrying geometry and time.
- Stream. A live channel that pushes events to subscribers the instant they arrive. Dashboards, web maps, and field devices subscribe rather than poll.
- Route history. The ordered sequence of an object's events over time, replayable as a path and queryable for "where was it an hour ago."
- Spatial logic. Geofence, zone, and proximity rules evaluated as data flows through, firing alerts or triggering workflows the moment a boundary is crossed.
The Event Broker handles real-time telemetry volume. To connect the broader catalog of spatial, sensor, and enterprise sources, use Nexma SyncEngine. The two ingestion paths work together.
How it works
An update moves from a device, over whatever protocol it already speaks, into a live stream and a permanent record in one pass.
1device --(HTTP/MQTT/TCP/WS/gRPC/SDK)--> Event Broker
2 |
3 +-------------------------+-------------------------+
4 v v v
5 live stream to spatial logic DataBase
6 dashboards & devices (geofences, zones) (route history)The same write path powers the real-time map and the permanent record, so there is no separate analytics pipeline to keep in sync.
Protocols
Devices connect over the protocol they already speak. Each payload is mapped into a typed spatial event on the way in.
| Protocol | Typical source | Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP | Vehicles, web clients, REST trackers | Request or webhook |
| MQTT | Vessels, IoT sensors, low-power devices | Pub/sub |
| TCP | Aircraft, industrial trackers | Persistent socket |
| WebSocket | Servers, browser apps, live dashboards | Bidirectional stream |
| gRPC | High-throughput services | Streaming RPC |
| Native SDK | Mobile and field apps | Embedded client |
A single broker replaces a separate handler per device. Every update, whatever its protocol, becomes a position on the map.
Stream, store, and react
The Event Broker does four things to every event as it arrives:
- Ingest — absorb millions of updates per second from fleets, sensors, and feeds without backpressure or sampling.
- Stream — push live positions straight to dashboards, web maps, and end-user devices as map layers, updated the instant they change. No polling, no refresh.
- Store — write each point with its position and timestamp so live and past data form one continuous, replayable route.
- React — evaluate geofence, zone, and proximity rules in flight; fire alerts and webhooks, or trigger an agentic workflow the moment a rule is crossed.
Because reaction happens inline, the gap between an event and a response is milliseconds, not hours.
Relationship to the DataBase
The Event Broker is the write path; the Nexma DataBase is the store behind it. Positions land in the DataBase's compact delta-log encoding — on the order of tens of bytes per update — which keeps planetary-scale history affordable instead of forcing teams to downsample.
That shared backbone is what lets live tracking and historical recall come from one system rather than two pipelines kept in sync. You subscribe to a live stream or query the recent window with the same spatial-temporal model, and the full route history is always there to replay.
Where it fits
The Event Broker streams telemetry into the DataBase and keeps the DataStore world model current. Crossed thresholds and geofences hand off to Nexma AgentEngine for automated response, and Jax reasons over both the live stream and the history through the eight generic primitives.
Where to go next
- Nexma DataBase — the time-aware store telemetry streams into.
- Nexma SyncEngine — connect the broader catalog of sources.
- Live data and the Globe — how telemetry renders on the map.
- Connecting data — wire a device or feed into the platform.