OpenLCB Specifications

This page provides access to the OpenLCB™ Standards and Technical Note documents.

OpenLCB is not a formal standards-making body, but we are interested in making it clear what's required and not required for interoperation between OpenLCB nodes. Therefore, we are creating a series of "standards" and corresponding explanatory "technical notes" as specific documents. “Standards” are normative, to the extent that anything this bunch of happy campers does can be proscriptive. “Technical Notes” are coupled statements of explanations and additional information that go with each standard. For more information on the conventions used when writing OpenLCB standards and technical notes, please see the separate “conventions” page.

For background information, informal and development documents, etc, please see the “documentation” index page.

Layered View

OpenLCB has been created as a layered family of protocols. The basic structure is along the lines of the wildly successful architecture of the ARPA TCP/IP family of protocols. For use on e.g. Controller Area Network (CAN), OpenLCB has to deal with lower-level concepts than the TCP/IP stack does, however, so OpenLCB is structured like a hybrid of the TCP/IP with the lower-level physical-layer and data-link-layer concepts of the ISO model.

In the following, items marked in light green are complete, at least for a first pass. Items marked in blue are preliminary and under development. Uncolored links are to informal documents which will eventually form adopted standards and technical notes. The right two columns list the corresponding ISO and TCP/IP layer names, and are not part of OpenLCB.

Introduction (We need a strong technical, non-normative introduction of some sort. It's not clear where it goes in this view of the table of contents. See the prior “Technical Introduction” development document for an example of possible content.)

Common

CAN

TCP/IP

ISO Model Layer

TCP/IP Model Layer

Train Control Protocol [dev note]

Display Protocol [dev note]

Configuration Description Information [dev note]

Configuration Protocol [dev note]

Remote Button Protocol [dev note]

Ident Method [dev note]

Event Teaching/Learning Protocol [dev note 1] [dev note 2] [dev note 3]

Producer/Consumer Protocol [dev note]

Protocol Identification Protocol [prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)] [prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]

Application

Application




Presentation




Session

Stream Transport

OpenLCB-CAN Stream Transport [dev note]

OpenLCB-TCP/IP Stream Transport

Transport

Transport

Datagram Transport
[dev note]

OpenLCB-CAN Datagram Transport
[prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)]
[prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]

OpenLCB-TCP/IP Datagram Transport

Event Transport
[dev note 1]
[dev note 2]

Event Identifiers
[working note]
[prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)] [prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]


OpenLCB-CAN Event Transport
[prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)]
[prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]

OpenLCB-TCP/IP Event Transport

General Message Network [prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)]
[prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]

[TN on Message Type Indicator allocation (.pdf) (.odt)]

[MTI allocations (.pdf) (.ods)]

OpenLCB-CAN Message Network [prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)]
[prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]

TCP/IP Message Network
[(working note on Ethernet and TCP/IP)] [(working note on binary exchange)]

Network

Internet/Network

Unique Identifiers (Node IDs)
[prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)] [prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]

OpenLCB-CAN Frame Transport
[prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)]
[prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]

OpenLCB-TCP Segment Transport
[prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)]
[prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]
[TCP/IP (binary protocol) details]

Data Link

Network Interface/Subnetwork


OpenLCB-CAN Physical Layer
[Standard] [Technical Note]

Updated versions under discussion: [Standard (with changes marked)] [Technical Note (with changes marked)]
See NMRA page for news on submission status.

(none)

Physical Interface



Other documents

General

Introduction (We need a strong technical, non-normative introduction of some sort. See the prior “Technical Introduction” development document.)

Documentation conventions and general background information on data types, etc, can be found in the “General Information TN” (.pdf) (.odt).

Glossary of OpenLCB terms (.pdf) (.odt)

Allocation Tables

Various numbers have to be allocated and recorded in OpenLCB. This section documents those.

Numbers can have one of several status values:

Unique IDs and Node IDs

OpenLCB node IDs are a form of unique identifier which are allocated as described in a [prelim Std (.pdf)(.odt)] and [prelim TN (.pdf)(.odt)]. Specific values are recorded and make available via OpenLCB web pages:

Message Type Indicators (MTIs)

OpenLCB Message Type Indicators (MTIs) are allocated as described in a [prelim TN (.pdf) (.odt)]. The specific assigned values are tracked in a [spreadsheet (.pdf)(.ods)].

Event IDs

There's a [working note] on assignment of Event IDs. The specific assigned values are tracked in a [spreadsheet (.pdf)(.ods)].

Protocol ID numbers

Protocol ID numbers are defined in the Protocol Identification Protocol specification. [(.pdf) (.ods)]

Datagram protocol IDs

The specific assigned values are tracked in a spreadsheet [(.pdf)(.ods)].

Stream protocol IDs

The specific assigned values are tracked in a spreadsheet [(.pdf)(.ods)].

Status

September 10 2011 – More MTI updates

August 28 2011 – MTI updates

July 19 2011 - New physical layer drafts for discussion

References

TCP/IP model

http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_TCPIPArchitectureandtheTCPIPModel-2.htm

http://www.davidchappell.com/HTML_email/Opinari_No9_01_04.html

ISO model

http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_OSIReferenceModelLayerSummary.htm


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