What Is The Full Form Of SLIP?
The full form of SLIP is Serial Line Internet Protocol.
SLIP is an implementation of TCP/IP, described under the RFC (Request for Comments) 1055. It is an encapsulation of the IP (Internet Protocol) that establishes a point-to-point serial connection. This connection works over routers, serial ports, and dial-up connections. SLIP functions to encapsulate IP packets across a serial line. It does so to establish connections meanwhile using a line speed of 12000 bps to 19.2 kbps.
The PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) has largely replaced SLIP on personal computers because it has better features and doesn’t require setting up IP address configuration for establishing. However, SLIP is still a preference in the microcomputers for encapsulating the IP packets. It is because SLIP has a small overhead.
History of SLIP
- Rick Adams used SLIP to connect Microsystems workstations and 4.2 Berkeley Unix Sun in 1984- thus introducing this protocol.
- The rest of the world soon caught up with SLIP as a credible implementation for TCP/IP.
- SLIP is now obsolete after the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) replaced it. It solves many deficiencies present in SLIP.
Characteristics of SLIP
- It is a predecessor protocol of Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP).
- SLIP provides no authentication.
- SLIP introduces two special characters=- the ESC (decimal 129) and END (decimal 192). Based on whether the code of data byte represents ESC or END character, SLIP sends the two-byte sequence of ESC and octal 335 or ESC and octal 334 in a data packet, respectively.
- It covers all the internet protocol packets.
- Compressed SLIP is a protocol derived from SLIP.
- SLIP has no maximum size of its packets since there’s no standard specification. However, 1006 bytes is the most widely accepted value of datagram for both receiving and sending.
- The sender, while using SLIP, must be aware of the IP addresses required for both ends of it.
- During IP addressing, SLIP only supports static assignment.
- Data transmission occurs in a synchronous form.
- Every frame under SLIP consists of a (data) payload, along with a flag that acts as an end delimiter.
Benefits of SLIP
- The SLIP routines enable Internet Protocol communication over a serial line.
- It has the ability to allow a variety of combinations of network configurations, like, host-router, host-host, router-router, etc.
- SLIP has a small overhead- making it suitable to be used in microcontrollers.
- It is a basic packet protocol and has a wide application of TCP/IP- making SLIP easy to implement.
- This protocol reuses all the existing telephone lines and dial-up connections.
- SLIP supports the most widely used protocol- the IP (Internet Protocol).
- The deployment of SLIP is easy.
Limitations of SLIP
- SLIP performs no data authentication.
- One can’t assign the IP addresses dynamically while using SLIP.
- It has no type identification method. One cannot detect the type of protocol sent. Thus, the SLIP connection usually runs only one protocol.
- SLIP has no mechanism for detecting or correcting an error in data transmissions.
- It is not suitable for dial-up connections that are error-prone.
- There are no mechanisms through which the hosts can communicate the addressing information.
- SLIP has no connection features for improving the pocket throughput. A variant named CSLIP served the same purpose- but it did not have a wide application.
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