Performance Tuning

The ESP8266 has a single CPU core. This project tries to avoid waste where possible, but optimizes more for feature set and ease of use than packet throughput. That said, there are some configurations to tweak if you want to get the most out of it.

Use MQTT or v5 UDP

Other protocols (v6 UDP, REST) include receipt messages, which drastically decrease performance. v5 UDP is the most lightweight option, but doesn't support all bulb types.

Set state flushing rate limit high

Set state_flush_interval as high as you can tolerate it. This controls how often state is persisted to flash.

When using MQTT

• Disable updates by clearing the setting mqtt_update_topic_pattern.
• If you don't need state updates at all, you can also clear mqtt_state_topic_pattern.
• If you do need state, set mqtt_state_rate_limit as high as you can tolerate it. This controls how often state is flushed to the state topic.

Disable passive listening

This will prevent the radio from rapidly being reconfigured to support scanning multiple channels at once. It will also free CPU cycles otherwise spent in code handling listening. Do this by setting listen_repeats to 0.

Make sure repeat throttling is enabled

Repeat throttling automatically decreases the number of repeated packets down to a configurable minimum value when sending many commands in a short period of time. This improves throughput at the cost of reliability. The default values should work fine:

• packet_repeat_throttle_threshold should be set to no lower than the time it takes to send a command.
• packet_repeat_throttle_sensitivity should be set to anything >0.
• packet_repeat_minimum should be set to 1-3. Use 1 if you don't mind devices missing some packets.