A Project Example: ASN.1 Tools

A Product Line for Telecommunication Protocols Using ASN.1 and XSD

A Project Example

The project scope covered development of ASN.1 Tools - specific compilers and libraries for the telecommunications industry. The implemented solutions are intended for telecom software developers, helping them accelerate and simplify the development of telecom equipment and services.

Industry: Telecommunications and mobile

Customer: An IT company, software development for the telecommunications industry (USA).

Application areas:

IP telephony and wireless networks (GSM, 3G)
Satellite communications (Aeronautical Telecommunication Network)
Network management (X.500, SNMP)
Voice over IP (H.323 stack)
Cryptography and data protection (PKIX, X.509, PKCS 7)
Billing protocols (TAP3, RAP)

Users:

Telecommunication equipment manufacturers
Network service providers

Product details: Development tools (compiler and libraries) for software engineers in the fields of telecommunications - (ASN.1) and XML solutions (textual and binarized XML, Web Services).

Project scope:

Development and support of the existing ASN.1 product line - compiler and libraries for C, C++, Java and C#.
Development and support of a new product line - XML and Web Services frameworks for C, C++ and Java based on the ASN.1 compiler and runtime.
Software porting to general-purpose OS’s and embedded systems.
Development of an IDE for editing of ASN.1 syntax, its verification and compilation in C, C++, Java, C# code, decoding of BER, PER, XER data and their convenient display.
Documenting, customer support.

Technologies and standards:

ANSI C, C++, Java, C#, Perl
The ITU-T X.680-X.683, X.690-X.694, X.891, X.892 standards (ASN.1, BER, PER, XER, EXER)
W3C XML, XSL, XSD, SOAP 1.1 и 1.2, WSDL 1.2, WS-Security, HTTP(S)
Standards described in ASN.1 and XSD
Compiler implementation technologies (lexical analysis, parsing, semantic analysis, code generation and optimization), regression testing
Code certification according to international avionics software quality standard - DO 178B / DAL (Level C)

Development environment:

Linux/gcc, Windows/Visual Studio, Sun Solaris/gcc and Sun CC, JDK, Perl
Integration with zLib and CryptLib
Rational Purify, Rational PureCoverage, Valgrind, BoundsChecker, gdb/DDD
Qt
Using cross-compilers and emulators. Access to 50+ different embedded systems when porting.
Independently developed regression testing system
SCCS, CVS and SVN as version control systems

Project size:

1.1 million lines of C code, more than 300 thousand lines of Java code, over 100 thousand lines of C++ code
14 years, a 22-developer team

Benefits for the Customer:

The customer’s share of the market is 8 out of 10 ASN.1 solution sales.
New products were added to the customer’s product line: XML/XSD-solutions, ASN.1/C++, ASN.1 IDE.
High performance and the ability to port to other platforms without significant costs.
The solution is certified according to the DO-178B, level C, international aviation standard.
ProWide Labs was responsible for development and project management so that the customer could concentrate on strategic planning, marketing and sales.