ASN1C Is an All-in-One Development Solution Targeted at Product Developers

ASN1C is an all-in-one development solution targeted at product developers working with standards based on Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1). Many standards bodies use ASN.1 to define interoperable protocols, in a variety of industries as diverse as telecommunications, Internet security, network management, transportation, and healthcare (medical devices).

ASN1C has expanded beyond traditional ASN.1 encoding rules to support applications that have traditionally not used ASN.1. Especially noteworthy is added support of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Layer 3 messages. These include messages that make up the Non-Access Stratum (NAS) layer in Long Term Evolution (LTE) signaling protocols as well as other applications. To handle these non-ASN.1 messages, developers simply approximate the messages using ASN.1 and then ASN1C, with the use of special configuration directives and encoding rules, is able to handle them in much the same way as standard ASN.1 messages.

Support has also been added for Javascript Object Notation (JSON) encoders and decoders. This is a fast-growing format that is rapidly replacing XML as the standard format for web and mobile communications. Adding this support allows ASN.1 to be used as a schema for JSON data, something that currently does not exist in standardized form.

ASN1C can generate source code in four different programming languages for a given ASN.1 or XSD specification: C, C++, Java, or C#. Developers use the generated code produced by the compiler in conjunction with the provided run-time libraries to produce interoperable encoders and decoders for use in many different application domains including data communications and security applications.

In addition to the items mentioned above, other new features include:

+ Support for Microsoft Visual Studio(R) 2012.
+ Capability to embed configuration directives in ASN.1 comments
+ Addition of ASN.1 comments and type definitions to C/C++ header files
+ Option to directly use generated enumerated types in C/C++ code
+ Introduction of an open source version of the BER/DER run-time library for C.

Evaluation software may be freely downloaded from the company website. 

About Objective Systems

Objective Systems is a privately held company in Exton, PA whose mission is the development of standards-based software to support open interconnection standards. In addition to the ASN1C product, Objective Systems offers a pure XML-based data binding utility in its XBinder(R) code generation product. The company also offers custom development and training services in support of its products.