CSLIP stands for Compressed Serial Line Internet Protocol, a version of SLIP or Serial Line Internet Protocol that is widely used on microcontrollers. Unlike SLIP, which has largely been replaced by the more robust PPP protocol for personal computers, CSLIP remains a preferred method for encapsulating IP packets because of its low overhead.
CSLIP implements Van Jacobson TCP/IP Header Compression, which compresses Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) headers from twenty bytes to only seven bytes without affecting the payload. However, CSLIP has no effect on User Datagram Protocol (UDP) datagrams.
Although Linux has the SLIP driver as part of its kernel, its speed requires special tty line discipline or SLIPDISC to explicitly convert the serial line to SLIP mode. In SLIPDISC, user-space processes are prevented from reading or writing to the tty while data from the serial port is passed directly to the SLIP driver.
FAQs about CSLIP
What is CSLIP and what does it do?
CSLIP stands for Compressed Serial Line Internet Protocol, a version of SLIP that compresses Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) headers from twenty bytes to seven bytes while keeping the payload intact. It is a preferred encapsulation protocol for IP packets on microcontrollers due to its low overhead.
What is the difference between CSLIP and SLIP?
The main difference between CSLIP and SLIP is that CSLIP implements Van Jacobson TCP/IP Header Compression while SLIP does not. This compression reduces TCP headers from twenty bytes to seven bytes without affecting the payload, making it a preferred method for encapsulating IP packets on microcontrollers.
Why is CSLIP still used?
CSLIP is still used on microcontroller devices because of its low overhead, making it an efficient way of encapsulating IP packets. Although it has been replaced by PPP on personal computers, CSLIP has remained a preferred protocol on microcontrollers.
Conclusion
CSLIP is a protocol for encapsulating IP packets with low overhead, making it an efficient method for microcontroller devices. CSLIP compresses TCP headers using Van Jacobson TCP/IP Header Compression without affecting the payload. While it has largely been replaced by PPP on personal computers, CSLIP remains a preferred protocol for encapsulating IP packets on microcontrollers.
