A Comparative Analysis of IoT Data Pipelines for Real-Time Mixed Reality Visualisation in Unity-Based Digital Twins

Abstract: Digital Twins increasingly rely on real-time IoT data, yet the end-to-end architectural implications of alternative integration approaches remain underexplored. This paper presents a controlled comparative analysis of three IoT data pipelines connecting The Things Network (TTN) to a Unity-based Digital Twin for mixed reality visualisation: cloud-centric pipelines using Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and a lightweight publish–subscribe pipeline based on direct MQTT delivery. By isolating the data integration layer, a benchmarking approach evaluates data transmission behaviour, persistence, integration complexity, scalability, and cost. The findings provide practical architectural insight into how pipeline design choices shape Digital Twin behaviour.