As a DIY enthusiast, I was aware that maintaining a smart home requires time and attention to detail. I use a lot of affordable smart devices that operate over the Zigbee protocol with Home a**istant. Most of my IoT and smart devices utilize the MQTT protocol, also known as Message Queuing Telemetry Transport, to communicate with each other over a network. I chose it since MQTT is lightweight, ideal for low-power devices, and efficient for enabling smart devices to communicate in real-time.