We rewrote LF Edge eKuiper in Rust: 425k eps, 8MB RAM, 13ms boot (vs Flink, Go eKuiper & Benthos)

I-Dacs Labs has rewritten the LF Edge eKuiper engine from Java to Rust, a significant step forward for high-throughput telemetry pipelines on edge devices. Traditional JVM-based engines like Apache Flink require 1 GB RAM and take 20+ seconds to boot, while Go-based alternatives like Upstream eKuiper and Benthos, although lighter, suffer from tail latency jitter and packet loss under burst sensor loads.

By rewriting the engine in pure Rust, the team achieved an impressive 425,308 events per second with zero data loss and only 8-9 MB of idle RAM consumption. The Rust-based rekuiper boots in just 12.5-14.5 milliseconds, a stark contrast to the 1.2 seconds required by Go eKuiper and the 20 seconds needed for Apache Flink. Notably, rekuiper's lock-free stream bus and bounded actor queues for sinks eliminate runtime GC pauses, resulting in a highly efficient and reliable edge computing solution.