Estimation of the optimal performance of ASN.1/BER transfer syntax

1 July 1993

journal article
Published by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review

Vol. 23 (3) , 45-58
https://doi.org/10.1145/174194.174203

Abstract

Many networked applications intend to use the OSI syntax language ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) and the associated encoding standard BER (Basic Encoding Rules) to achieve interoperability. However, the processing efficiency of BER has been a serious concern. The BER data conversion function has been viewed as the dominant communication cost, with a processing overhead many times greater than that of the other protocol-related functions combined. This paper demonstrates that if engineered to operate under certain favorable but realistic conditions, the BER conversion function runs much faster than what has been previously reported. In fact, a throughput comparable to a TCP/IP/ATM package (20 Mb/s) has been achieved in experiments. This result implies that ASN.1/BER as a solution to interoperability is more viable than previously thought.

Keywords

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