Re: Suggestions for custom application-layer protocol?

From: Sean Burke (foobar_at_mystery.org)
Date: 05/25/05 

Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 19:21:02 GMT

"Mark" <mark_2811nospam@excite.com> writes:

> I need to implement a simple application layer protocol that will be used to
> communicate between an embedded device (single-board computer running Linux)
> and a monitoring terminal (running Windows). There isn't alot of data being
> passed around, mostly status information collected by the embedded device,
> and control messages from the monitoring terminal. Messages will consist of
> between 1 and 10 fields of data.
>
> I want the protocol to be text based rather than binary since the data
> throughput is low. I also want the protocol to be based on TCP/IP. Does
> anyone here have any suggestions on the design of a simple protocol? Are
> there simple, standard ways of formatting text messages to be sent over a
> TCP socket (such as comma-separated)? I would prefer to avoid the
> complexities of XML. Since either the embedded device or the monitoring
> terminal can initiate a message, is it preferable to have TCP servers
> running on both sides? Or is it better to simply leave a TCP connection
> open between client and server? Any suggestions on ultra-simple standard
> protocols that do something similar to this?
>
> Any suggestions or pointers to further reading are much appreciated.

One option to consider is to embed a web interface into your
application. This has the advantage that you can use any web
browser as the client side of the interface.

There are a variety of very small web servers that are suitable
for embedding. One such that I have used successfully is "pserv".
>From the FreeBSD ports description:

| pServ is a small, portable HTTP server. It is written in pure C for speed and
| portability. It runs as a standalone program and does not require inetd.
| It should be small enough to be used in a mobile computer or to be run on your
| obsolete workstation you have somewhere.
|
| This port contains a patched version to support the execution of php scripts.
|
| WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pserv/

-SEan

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Suggestions for custom application-layer protocol?
    ... > communicate between an embedded device (single-board computer running Linux) ... I also want the protocol to be based on TCP/IP. ... There are a variety of very small web servers that are suitable ...
    (comp.unix.programmer)
  • Re: Suggestions for custom application-layer protocol?
    ... In comp.os.linux.embedded Mark wrote: ... > communicate between an embedded device ... I also want the protocol to be based on TCP/IP. ... might need to run multiple monitoring terminals in other places, ...
    (comp.os.linux.embedded)
  • Re: Suggestions for custom application-layer protocol?
    ... In comp.os.linux.embedded Mark wrote: ... > communicate between an embedded device ... I also want the protocol to be based on TCP/IP. ... might need to run multiple monitoring terminals in other places, ...
    (comp.unix.programmer)
  • Re: Suggestions for custom application-layer protocol?
    ... > communicate between an embedded device ... > and a monitoring terminal (running Windows). ... I also want the protocol to be based on TCP/IP. ... > TCP socket? ...
    (comp.os.linux.embedded)
  • Re: Suggestions for custom application-layer protocol?
    ... > communicate between an embedded device ... > and a monitoring terminal (running Windows). ... I also want the protocol to be based on TCP/IP. ... > TCP socket? ...
    (comp.unix.programmer)