FLECS: A framework for rapidly implementing forwarding protocols

Abstract

Design, implementation and deployment of network protocols is a challenging and difficult task. Determining their correctness and feasibility for large-scale networks is even more complicated. This paper presents Flecs, a framework for fascilitating implementation of forwarding protocols for packet-switched networks. We build upon the observation that the forwarding functionality can be modeled as a combination of well-defined but customizable components, the functionality of each component is constrained by the fundamental axioms of communication. Flecs provides a protocol specification language and automatically generates the protocol implementation from the specification. © 2009 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.