Packet types: abstract specification of network protocol messages

ABSTRACT

In writing networking code, one is often faced with the task of interpreting a raw buffer according to a standardized packet format. This is needed, for example, when monitoring network traffic for specific kinds of packets, or when unmarshaling an incoming packet for protocol processing. In such cases, a programmer typically writes C code that understands the grammar of a packet and that also performs any necessary byte-order and alignment adjustments. Because of the complexity of certain protocol formats, and because of the low-level of programming involved, writing such code is usually a cumbersome and error-prone process. Furthermore, code written in this style loses the domain-specific information, viz. the packet format, in its details, making it difficult to maintain.

REFERENCES

• 1: Mark B. Abbott , Larry L. Peterson, A language-based approach to protocol implementation, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (TON), v.1 n.1, p.4-19, Feb. 1993 [doi>10.1109/90.222903]
• 2: Mary L. Bailey, Burra Gopal, Michael A. Pagels, Larry L. Peterson, and Prasenjit Sarkar. PathFinder: A patternbased packet classifier. In Proceedings of the First Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation. USENIX Association, November 1994.
• 3: Anindya Basu, Mark Hayden, Greg Morrisett, and Thorsten von Eicken. A language-based approach to protocol construction. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Domain Specic Languages (WDSL), Paris, France, January 1997.
• 4: Andrew Begel , Steven McCanne , Susan L. Graham, BPF+: exploiting global data-flow optimization in a generalized packet filter architecture, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, v.29 n.4, p.123-134, Oct. 1999
• 5: Gerard Berry and Georges Gonthier. The ESTEREL synchronous programming language: Design, semantics, implementation. Technical Report 842, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris, 1988.
• 6: Edoardo Biagioni , Robert Harper , Peter Lee , Brian G. Milnes, Signatures for a network protocol stack: a systems application of Standard ML, Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on LISP and functional programming, p.55-64, June 27-29, 1994, Orlando, Florida, United States
• 7: Milind M. Buddhikot , Subhash Suri , Marcel Waldvogel, Space Decomposition Techniques for Fast Layer-4 Switching, Proceedings of the IFIP TC6 WG6.1 & WG6.4 / IEEE ComSoc TC on on Gigabit Networking Sixth International Workshop on Protocols for High Speed Networks VI, p.25-42, August 25-27, 1999
• 8: CCITT. Recommendation X.208: Specication of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1), 1988.
• 9: Eric Eide , Kevin Frei , Bryan Ford , Jay Lepreau , Gary Lindstrom, Flick: a flexible, optimizing IDL compiler, Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 1997 conference on Programming language design and implementation, p.44-56, June 16-18, 1997, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
• 10: Dawson R. Engler , M. Frans Kaashoek, DPF: fast, flexible message demultiplexing using dynamic code generation, Conference proceedings on Applications, technologies, architectures, and protocols for computer communications, p.53-59, August 28-30, 1996, Palo Alto, California, United States
• 11: Norman C. Hutchinson , Larry L. Peterson, The X-Kernel: An Architecture for Implementing Network Protocols, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.17 n.1, p.64-76, January 1991 [doi>10.1109/32.67579]
• 12: International Telecommunication Union. Recommendation Q.931 - ISDN user-network interface layer 3 specication for basic call control, May 1998.
• 13: Mahesh Jayaram and Ron K. Cytron. Efficient demultiplexing of network packets by automatic parsing. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Compiler Support for System Software (WCSSS), 1996.
• 14: Eddie Kohler , M. Frans Kaashoek , David R. Montgomery, A readable TCP in the Prolac protocol language, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, v.29 n.4, p.3-13, Oct. 1999
• 15: Barbara H. Liskov , Jeannette M. Wing, A behavioral notion of subtyping, ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), v.16 n.6, p.1811-1841, Nov. 1994 [doi>10.1145/197320.197383]
• 16: Steven McCanne and Van Jacobsen. The BSD packet lter: A newarchitecture for user-level packet capture. In 1993 Winter USENIX, pages 259-269, January 1993.
• 17: J. Mogul , R. Rashid , M. Accetta, The packer filter: an efficient mechanism for user-level network code, Proceedings of the eleventh ACM Symposium on Operating systems principles, p.39-51, November 08-11, 1987, Austin, Texas, United States
• 18: Michael Mouly. CSN.1 Specication, Version 2. Cell & Sys, 1998.
• 19: Object Management Group. CORBA/IIOP 2.2 Specication, 1998.
• 20: Sean O'Malley , Todd Proebsting , Allen Brady Montz, USC: a universal stub compiler, Proceedings of the conference on Communications architectures, protocols and applications, p.295-306, August 31-September 02, 1994, London, United Kingdom
• 21: J. Postel. RFC 791: Internet Protocol, September 1981. Obsoletes RFC0760. See also STD0005. Status: STANDARD.
• 22: W. Simpson. RFC 1662: PPP in HDLC-like framing, July 1994. See also STD0051 . Obsoletes RFC1549 . Status: STANDARD.
• 23: R. Srinivasan. RFC 1832: XDR: External data representation standard, August 1995. Status: DRAFT STANDARD.
• 24: Masanobu Yuhara, Brian N. Bershad, Chris Maeda, and J. Eliot B. Moss. Efficient packet demultiplexing for multiple endpoints and large messages. In Proceedings of the 1994 Winter USENIX Conference, pages 153-165, January 1994.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Packet-switching networks
      C.2.3 Network Operations
          Subjects: Network monitoring

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.3 Software Management
          Subjects: Software development

General Terms:
Design, Languages, Measurement, Performance, Standardization, Theory