TIMPt

TIMPt is an open protocol and reference implementation for the exchange and processing of time-stamped measurements in distributed systems. It defines a unified data model, encoding, and transport mechanisms intended to improve interoperability among sensors, devices, and analytic platforms that rely on precise temporal information.

TIMPt originated in the early 2020s as part of efforts to standardize temporal data in IoT and industrial settings. It was developed by a consortium of academic researchers and industry partners and published as TIMPt Specification v1.0 in 2023. The project emphasizes compatibility with existing telemetry standards and aims to enable scalable time-series analytics across diverse environments.

The protocol centers on a time-indexed observation model that includes entities such as devices and sensors, observations with a timestamp, a measured value, and associated quality or provenance metadata. TIMPt distinguishes event time from processing time, supports nanosecond-level precision, multiple time zones, and explicit handling of time attributes. The encoding offers a compact binary form alongside JSON bindings, with options for delta compression and chunked streaming to support high-throughput workloads. Security considerations cover authenticated transport, integrity checks, and optional access control tied to the data stream.

TIMPt employs a layered architecture consisting of a Core Protocol layer, a Serialization layer (TIMPt Core and TIMPtX), and a Transport layer (HTTP/2, gRPC, MQTT). The data model centers on Entities (devices), Observations (measurements), and Observables (features). Reference implementations exist in multiple programming languages, with adapters for common time-series databases and analytics tools. Interoperability with existing standards such as SensorThings and SenML is emphasized to facilitate integration.

TIMPt has seen pilots in smart grids and industrial IoT contexts and remains one of several evolving temporal data standards. See also: time series database, timestamp, sensor data standardization.