RFC 3252 (rfc3252) - Page 1 of 16

Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport

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Network Working Group                                         H. Kennedy
Request for Comments: 3252                                      Mimezine
Category: Informational                                     1 April 2002


                 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document defines a reformulation of IP and two transport layer
   protocols (TCP and UDP) as XML applications.

1.   Introduction

1.1. Overview

   This document describes the Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport
   (BLOAT): a reformulation of a widely-deployed network-layer protocol
   (IP [RFC 791]), and two associated transport layer protocols (TCP
   [RFC 793] and UDP [RFC 768]) as XML [XML] applications.  It also
   describes methods for transporting BLOAT over Ethernet and IEEE 802
   networks as well as encapsulating BLOAT in IP for gatewaying BLOAT
   across the public Internet.

1.2. Motivation

   The wild popularity of XML as a basis for application-level protocols
   such as the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol [RFC 3080], the Simple
   Object Access Protocol [SOAP], and Jabber [JABBER] prompted
   investigation into the possibility of extending the use of XML in the
   protocol stack.  Using XML at both the transport and network layer in
   addition to the application layer would provide for an amazing amount
   of power and flexibility while removing dependencies on proprietary
   and hard-to-understand binary protocols.  This protocol unification
   would also allow applications to use a single XML parser for all
   aspects of their operation, eliminating developer time spent figuring
   out the intricacies of each new protocol, and moving the hard work of




Kennedy                      Informational
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