[rabbitmq-discuss] RabbitMQ or other AMQP Client on Embedded Systems

[Angus Davis]

Hello,
I am new to RabbitMQ, but am curious if it could be used in an embedded
systems environment to publish messages. We have a network of
environmental sensors in various locations that output real-time wind
information using RS-232 Serial. We have an embedded device connected
to the sensor that uses the Lantronix xPort embedded device server to
convert serial to Ethernet (http://tinyurl.com/3toe4). Today, these
distributed devices connect via TCP over the Internet to a centrally
located home server and just constantly print out their information
every couple seconds, which we then process and log as appropriate in a
database, which is subsequently polled by Web-based clients to show near
real-time updates form the sensors. Instead of this architecture, we
think it might be advantageous to use RabbitMQ to publish the messages,
giving us greater control and flexibility. Doing so requires an AMQP
client, either running on the embedded device server, or on some other
component we run in the environment at the location of the remote
sensor, where today we do not have any traditional PC (due to cost
reasons -- we have only a DSL modem, router and our embedded sensor
device). We could consider, for example, a Linksys WRT54G running
OpenWRT Linux - does anyone have experience running RabbitMQ or another
RabbitMQ-compatible AMQP client in such an environment, perhaps on an
Linksys WRT54G or similar embedded device? The advantage of the OpenWRT
route is that we could avoid custom firmware hacking on the Lantronix,
which uses a proprietary environment called DSTni. Thanks in advance
for any tips or pointers on AMQP clients in such an environment. Also,
if this is something someone would be interested in tackling on a
consulting/contractor basis, let me know, as I would be happy to fund a
RabbitMQ port to OpenWRT (or better option) if the cost were reasonable
and it would benefit the community. Thanks,
-angus

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[Ben Hood]

Angus,

On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 11:54 PM, Angus Davis <angus...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We could consider, for example, a Linksys WRT54G running
> OpenWRT Linux - does anyone have experience running RabbitMQ or another
> RabbitMQ-compatible AMQP client in such an environment, perhaps on an
> Linksys WRT54G or similar embedded device?

FWIW we use bunch of Linksys NSLU2 SLUGs to test Rabbit broker clustering.

However, you are more interested in the client rather than the broker.
Considering that the server can run in a resource constrained
environment, it is likely that a client scenario would work as well.

Depending on your actual resource constraints, you might want to use a
native client in order to avoid the overhead of a VM.

Were that the case, you might want to look at OpenAMQ's C client, I
should imagine it compiles on a variety of architectures.

But I don't know if you had any specific client language or bindings in mind.

HTH,

Ben

[Martin Sustrik]

Angus,

> Were that the case, you might want to look at OpenAMQ's C client, I
> should imagine it compiles on a variety of architectures.

You may also have a look at 0MQ project (www.zeromq.org). It doesn't
include AMQP broker so you would have to use RabbitMQ broker as the
central point, however, upcoming 0.5 release is able to play part of
AMQP client.

The advantages for embedded devices that it works on wide variety of
platforms including real-time ones like QNX, it supports ARM
microarchitecture, it's small (requires few kB of memory & disk space),
and it's specifically tuned for real-time environments.

Martin