Network Protocol Dictionary

This is a YAML network protocol dictionary for all (binary based) OSI-Layer 1-4 protocols, eg. Ethernet, IP, TCP, UDP, etc.

• What this dictionary should be:

  • A complete machine readable structure definition dictionary for all binary based network protocols
  • Addon: some protocol documentation from wikipedia or RFCs for display use.
  • A reference for building a network packet from scratch in an application, mostly for applications dealing with network packets.

• What it is clearly NOT:

  • Currently: complete.
  • A replacement for reading RFCs: Dependencies and constraints are NOT defined in this dictionary
  • A source for implementing network stacks

Why?

I have a project where I want to use a non platform dependent source for network protocol structures so I want to avoid using the defined structures in the OS includes which depend on the operating system used at program execution. Simple, isn't it?

How to add a new protocol

• Clone.
• Install ruby+kwalify (gem install kwalify).
• Check structure-schema.yml.
• Write protocol file in ./protocols/osi[layer]/[protocolname].yml.
• Validate structure with 'kwalify -lf structure-schema.yml [path/to/protocolname].yml' or validate all at once with 'kwalify -lf structure-schema.yml ./protocols/osi*/*.yml'.
• Set up a merge request.
• Be happy.

How to use this dictionary

Currently not recommended, because the project lacks deeper tests than just schema validation. ;)

• Clone.
• Get a YAML library for your program language. Or get a converter for JSON or XML, to use these markup languages.
• Load desired protocol files, or all of them.
• Use resulting data structures to build protocol packet structures.

This repository will provide examples or useable code snippets for specific programming languages in the future...