<language, standard> (ASN.1) An ISO/ITU-T standard language for the description of data, defined in 1988. ITU TS X.208, ISO 8824.
Basic Encoding Rules (BER) provide a universal (contiguous) concrete representation of the data values whose abstract syntax is described in ASN.1. ASN.1 and BER facilitate the exchange of structured data between application programs over networks by describing data structures in a way that is independent of machine architecture and implementation language.
OSI Application layer protocols such as X.400 MHS electronic mail, X.500 directory services and SNMP use ASN.1 to describe the PDUs they exchange. ASN.1 is used by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
[M. Sample et al, "Implementing Efficient Encoders and Decoders for Network Data Representations", IEEE Infocom 93 Proc, v.3, pp. 1143-1153 (Mar 1993). Available from Logica, UK].
See also snacc.
(30 Nov 1994)