Heartbeat Cost

Goal

Run experiments to measure heartbeat cost on the IC.

Summary

• Experiments run on canisters written in Rust and Motoko
  • Empty canisters *_empty, time is measured outside of dfx call
  • Non-empty canisters with measurements done inside the canister
• Results are based on ~15 minutes of measurements

Adjusted to production heartbeat rate

Experiment	Hearbeat Rate	Burn Rate per Sec	Burn Rate per Year
rust	917 ms	~0.65 MC	~21 TC
motoko	917 ms	~2.24 MC	~71 TC

Local dfx heartbeat rate

Note: non-production dfx runs a single node which causes reduced heartbeat rate and elevated costs.

Experiment	Hearbeat Rate	Burn Rate per Sec	Burn Rate per Year	Code	Data
rust	703 ms	~0.86 MC	~27 TC	code	data
rust_empty	-	~0.86 MC	~27 TC	code	data
motoko	706 ms	~2.94 MC	~93 TC	code	data
motoko_empty	-	~3.01 MC	~95 TC	code	data

Experiments rust, motoko

# Enter either motoko or rust folder.
$ cd motoko
# or
$ cd rust

# Start DFX and deploy a canister.
$ dfx start --background
$ dfx deploy

# Open Candid UI
# - call "reset" function to start measurements
# - call "report" function to get statistics since the last reset

# Stop/delete canisters, stop DFX execution.
$ dfx canister stop --all
$ dfx canister delete --all
$ dfx stop

Experiments rust_empty, motoko_empty

# Enter either motoko_empty or rust_empty folder.
$ cd motoko_empty
# or
$ cd rust_empty

# Start DFX and deploy a canister.
$ dfx start --background
$ dfx deploy

# Run experiment.
$ ./run_experiment.py

# Stop/delete canisters, stop DFX execution.
$ dfx canister stop --all
$ dfx canister delete --all
$ dfx stop