The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) has become the standard for communications on heterogeneous networks.

NicheStack™ is a complete range of TCP/IP protocol stack designed from the ground up to be small, portable, and RFC compliant implementations of the TCP/IP protocol suite. They include ANSI C sources for the TCP/IP family of protocols listed below, a Sockets API, and full technical documentation.

NicheStack IPv4 combines small size, extreme portability, high performance without compromise in RFC compliance.

NicheStack IPv6 offers the support that you need for future networking compatibility whilst remaining highly configurable and extremely compact.

NicheStack Dual is a device optimized protocol stack that handles simultaneous IPv4 and IPv6 networking traffic in a seamless and efficient manner.

The InterNiche IP layer can be configured as a standard client machine, an IP router, or a multi-homed server. NicheStack provides a protocol platform for InterNiche's PPP, FTP, Telnet Server, Web Server, Web Browser, DHCP Server, Email, SNMP, and routing products.

Download NicheStack IPv4 datasheet (140KB) >>>

Download NicheStack IPv6 datasheet (186KB) >>>

Download NicheStack Dual datasheet (118KB) >>>

• Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
• Internet Protocol (IP)
• Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
• Domain Name Services (DNS) Client
• User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
• Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
• Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP)
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Client
• Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)

Small Memory Requirement
A minimal Boot Client (ARP, IP, ICMP, UDP, DHCP. and TFTP) can be as small as 12.8 KB. A full featured TCP/IP (ARP, IP, ICMP, UDP, DHCP, and TCP) compiles to 42.4 KB. Adding the Sockets API brings the total ROM and RAM requirements to 51.5 KB on an ARM 32-bit processor.

Two Way Tasking
No special multitasking features are required. All code is implemented as an event-driven state machine, which means you can either run the stack by polling from a central loop or take advantage of an RTOS suspend/resume feature.

RTOS Independence
InterNiche provides a tasking API that interfaces to NicheTask™ or other RTOS environments so that the developer can easily migrate among a variety of RTOS environments and incur no additional overhead.

High Performance
NicheStack throughput is among the fastest in the industry and is limited only by the CPU speed and application.

Network Interfaces
Supports Ethernet, SLIP, PPP, PPPoE and wireless protocols such as 802.11x and Bluetooth.

Blocking and Non-Blocking
Supports both blocking and non-blocking modes of polling.

NicheTool™ - Debugger/Optimiser
NicheStack includes NicheTool, the most comprehensive debugging and optimising tools available in any commercially available TCP/IP stack. Debugging is totally menu driven, can be customised by development engineers for any applications added to the stack, and allows NicheStack to be optimized for memory usage and performance. TCP Layer

NicheStack's portable TCP layer is fast, small, and highly optimised for embedded systems. It is based on BSD 4.4 MBUFS and Sockets, and is therefore familiar to experienced TCP programmers.

For example, all sockets operations can be made in a non-blocking mode (SS_NBIO) socket option, including connect().

The "mbuf "data, including headers, is in contiguous buffers to simplify memory management and avoid data copies. The macros to protect critical sections of code are used sparingly to improve throughput and reduce stack memory requirement. Tunable parameters such as MSS (Maximum Segment Size) and the TCP window can be left to the runtime logic or be customised for your application.

• Zero data copy for ultra fast performance
• Standard Sockets Interface
• Raw Socket Support
• Non-blocking versions of all functions
• Versatile MSS and window options
• Connections limited only by memory availability
• Optimised assembly language checksum routines (or C language if you prefer)
• "Predictive" header processing for speed
• Nagle Algorithm (Slow Start)
• VJ Smoothed Round Trip Timing
• Delayed ACKs
• BSD style "Keepalive" option
• Complete debugging and optimisation module

The IP layer is often overlooked when evaluating TCP/IP code. While the differences between products are easiest to see at the TCP layer (where speed and code size vary widely), a well-designed IP layer may be more critical to the long-term success of your product.

Many embedded IP layers lack support for some or all of the features listed below. You may not need all of them upon initial implementation of TCP/IP in your product, but, as your product matures, it is almost certain to require additional features. InterNiche continuously tracks the IETF standards process for developments important to embedded hosts so that our TCP/IP stack is up to the most current specifications and offers the most advanced features.

• Support for NAT Routing
• Fragmentation and re-assembly
• IP Routing: Routes set via ICMP, SNMP, IGP, etc.
• Loop back test driver included
• Optimised checksum routines
• Multi Homed IP support
• Support for Auto-IP Assignment

More >>>