apache/bifromq

Apache BifroMQ is a distributed MQTT broker that natively supports multi-tenancy and is designed for large-scale IoT device connectivity and messaging systems.

The tool addresses the need for MQTT message brokering at scale with built-in multi-tenant isolation and resource sharing. It implements a distributed architecture with a built-in storage engine optimized specifically for MQTT workloads, eliminating the need for external middleware dependencies. The broker supports MQTT 3.1, 3.1.1, and 5.0 over TCP, TLS, WebSocket, and secure WebSocket connections. An extension mechanism allows customization of authentication and authorization, tenant-level runtime settings and resource throttling, event handling, and metrics collection at both system and tenant levels.

Adoption suits organizations building IoT platforms that require serving multiple independent tenants from a single cluster while maintaining workload isolation and resource controls. The tool is particularly relevant for scenarios where operational simplicity matters, since the integrated storage engine removes the operational burden of managing separate database infrastructure. The project provides Docker Compose examples for development and testing clusters, and supports building from source with JDK 17 and Maven, with optional native TLS support via OpenSSL.

The project maintains active development with regular commits across core broker functionality, storage engine improvements, and extension interfaces. Work spans multiple areas including protocol handling, distributed coordination, and tenant isolation mechanisms. The codebase shows ongoing refinement of configuration options and deployment patterns, with attention to both feature completeness and operational concerns like memory management in containerized environments.