A Robust XML-Based Approach for Network Protocols Implementation

This work proposes the XML-based multi protocol language (XMPL), a new XML-based language suitable for a protocol description in terms of protocol logic, protocol message set, and protocol data structures. In addition, we also present the XML-based multi protocol framework (XMPF), a new software protocol engine that is designed to be configured by protocol specifications contained in native XMPL files. As a consequence XMPF is a software tool that can support concurrently different protocols without the need to write specific code for each of them. A testbed implementing the generalized multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) protocol suite is used to validate the adopted XML approach and to evaluate its performance. At the current stage of development, XMPF appears suitable to support signaling protocols with low-to-medium messaging rate