PER ASN Encode of Open type elements

Manoj Paul mpaul at TRILLIUM.COM
Wed Apr 7 19:03:19 EDT 1999


  We would like to seek opinion about the PER ASN encoding of
  open type elements (such as extension additions in sequence/choice
  etc.). Such an encoding requires unconstrained length "len" to be
  appended before the actual field-list of open type element, where
  "len" is the number of octets in open type element field list encoding.

  There seem to be the following ways to achieve this:

  a) Keep encoding the open type element and when it's encoding is
  finished, count the number of octets in it's encoded value and
  add that before the encoded value as unconstrained length.
  b) Just parse through open type element encode rules and find the
  number of octets it will need. Encode this number as unconstrained
  length and then do the acutal encode of the open type element value.

  Implementing (a), on most systems might be expensive, as it will
  need writing "len" value somewhere in the middle of the message.
  (b) is also not desirable from performance point of view as it needs
  double parse.

  Encoding "len" value less than 16K (which it mostly will) as
  uncostrained length requires two bytes. But X-691 also says that
  this length should be encoded in one byte if it is less than
  127. Is it conforming to X-691, if length value less than 127 is also
  encoded in two bytes? That way, we know that whatever be the
  overall number of octets in encoded open type element field list,
  we will encode "len" in two octets and keep a place holder for
  these twp bytes before actually encoding the open type value. These
  "len" octets can then be written to contain  unconstrained
  length of open type value. This procedure will save the inefficiencies
  mentioned in (a) and (b) above. But then the catch being if
  length less than 127 can be encoded in two octets.

  best regards
  Manoj Paul.


+------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|Manoj Paul                    |  Trillium Digital Systems, Inc       |
|Member of Technical Staff     |  12100 Wilshire Blvd #1800           |
|E-mail:mpaul at trillium.com     |  Los Angeles, California 90025       |
|Tel: +1(310)-442-9222         |  U.S.A                               |
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