Getting Started with NanoMQ: Fast Edge MQTT Broker Deployment and Usage

Overview

NanoMQ is an edge‑focused messaging platform that provides a high‑performance MQTT broker and a lightweight message bus for software‑defined vehicles. It is built on the NNG asynchronous I/O and multithreaded model, with deep MQTT protocol optimizations.

Key Features

Full MQTT 5.0 support : Compatible with MQTT 5.0 and 3.1.1 and works with standard MQTT SDKs.

MQTT Bridge : Built‑in multi‑cloud bridging for synchronizing data across cloud endpoints.

Rule Engine : Simple on‑device rule engine; can be integrated with eKuiper for stream analytics.

Message Persistence : Local caching and durable storage for bridge messages, supporting offline‑store‑and‑forward.

Rich Integration APIs : Event‑driven WebHook and HTTP APIs for easy integration.

Multi‑Protocol Gateway : Supports nanomsg, ZeroMQ, WebSocket and other protocols with optional encryption.

MQTT STREAM : Treats all messages of a topic as a persistent data stream that can be queried, improving reliability in poor network conditions.

Core Advantages

Ultra‑lightweight : The broker can start with as little as 200 KB of memory.

Fully Asynchronous I/O : Actor‑model parallelism for MQTT workloads.

Multithreaded Parallelism : Strong SMP support and scalable performance on multi‑core CPUs.

High Throughput : Capable of handling millions of messages per second at the edge.

Cross‑Platform : Runs on any POSIX‑compatible system.

Interoperability : Transparent data model and extensible interfaces for integration with edge frameworks.

Quick Start with Docker

docker run -d --name nanomq \
  -p 1883:1883   # MQTT
  -p 8083:8083   # WebSocket
  -p 8883:8883   # SSL/TLS
  emqx/nanomq:latest

PHP Client Example (Workerman)

Install the client library:

composer require workerman/mqtt

Subscriber (subscribe.php)

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);
use Workerman\Worker;
require __DIR__ . '/../../vendor/autoload.php';
$worker = new Worker();
$worker->onWorkerStart = function() {
    $mqtt = new Workerman\Mqtt\Client('mqtt://127.0.0.1:1883');
    $mqtt->onConnect = function($mqtt) {
        $mqtt->subscribe('tinywan');
    };
    $mqtt->onMessage = function($topic, $content) {
        echo "Subscribed topic: {$topic}
";
        echo "Message content: {$content}
";
    };
    $mqtt->connect();
};
Worker::runAll();

Run:

php subscribe.php start

Publisher (publish.php)

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);
use Workerman\Worker;
require __DIR__ . '/../../vendor/autoload.php';
$worker = new Worker();
$worker->onWorkerStart = function() {
    $mqtt = new Workerman\Mqtt\Client('mqtt://127.0.0.1:1883');
    $mqtt->onConnect = function($mqtt) {
        $mqtt->publish('tinywan', 'Hi! NanoMQ');
    };
    $mqtt->connect();
};
Worker::runAll();

Run:

php publish.php start

Motivation

Edge environments generate massive data under constrained compute, power, and network conditions. A lightweight, high‑throughput, and resilient messaging bus is required to aggregate and distribute this data. NanoMQ addresses protocol fragmentation, limited resources, and the need for reliable offline handling by providing a unified, extensible solution suitable for embedded and MEC platforms.