Objectives and activities
The objective of the work is to further
the support provided to users of the ASN.1 notation, and to extend that notation
as new needs are identified.
During this Study Period (2001-2004) there are two main
pieces of activity:
- Provision of an
Encoding Control Notation that enables ASN.1 to be used to describe any
(typically legacy) protocol, with full user control of the actual bits on
the line.
- Provision for the display or transfer of ASN.1 values in XML format, and for the encoding of
XML-defined data using ASN.1
All work will be collaborative with ISO/IEC/JTC 1/SC 6.
Support for users of ASN.1 will continue to be provided in
the form of advice and guidance, tutorials, and free syntax-checkers. The
establishment of the ASN.1 project will assist this support, as will the
provision of the proposed database of ASN.1 modules.
Time-scales
Initial work on ECN was substantially completed in early 2001. Support for extensibility was
mature in late 2001, and work on support for character-based protocols will
extend into 2002 or 2003.
The XML work is expected to mature during 2002, with some
parts made available during 2001.
The new version of ASN.1 Recommendations is planned for 2002.
Due to the large amount of new Recommendations and amendments
in the first half of the Study Period, it is expected that there will be an
increase in the rate of defect reports and of requests for further minor
extensions to the new work. This will be the main activity during the latter
half of the Study Period.
Frequency of meetings
The ASN.1 group expects to meet with
Study Group 17 for most of its meetings, and also with ISO/IEC/JTC 1/SC 6. In
addition there are likely to be two or three interim meetings to progress the
work.
Liaisons
There will be continued close liaison with ASN.1 users in all Study Groups
and in ISO/IEC and in other groups such
as 3GPP.
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