Hampi - ASN.1 compiler in Rust

The Goal of this project is to implement an ASN.1 Compiler in Rust which can generate Rust bindings for different ASN.1 specifications, which can be used in various protocol implementations in Rust.

While it is certainly desirable to have a fully compliant ASN.1 Compiler, initial focus of the project is to be able to generate code that can be used in other software. First goal is to work with 3GPP specifications for protocols like Radio Network Access Protocl (RANAP), S1 Application protocl (S1AP) and NG Application Protocol (NGAP). Consequently current implementation also focuses on codecs used by these specifications viz. Aligned Packed Encoding Rules (APER).

The use cases targeted by this implementation are similar to the use cases targeted by asn1c compiler, which generates C bindings from the ASN.1 Specifications.

This project is divided into three crates -

  1. asn1-compiler: This crate provides the actual ASN.1 Compiler. Typically a utility will be provided, that will generate Rust structures starting with ASN.1 Specifications. Basic working features required to work with the 3GPP specifications is provided by the compiler, this includes Parameterized Types, Information Object Classes and Type Constraints.
  2. asn-codecs: Support for different encodings supported by individual ASN.1 specifications is provided in this crate. Currently only APER Codec is supported. Each Codec is supported as a trait implementing encode and decode functions. Support for different 'encoding rules' will be implemented in this trait and then the derive macros will utilize this code to actually generate the encoding support for Rust Structures generated by the compiler above.
  3. asn-codecs-derive: This crate provides the derive macros for the codecs in asn-codecs. The code generated using asn-compiler can be directed to derive appropriate codecs by passing the flags during compilation.

Status

Currently specifications from the specs/ directory can be compiled into respective Rust modules. See below for how these Rust modules can be used.

Getting Started

The simplest way to try out this in action is - cargo run --release specs/ngap/NGAP-* > ngap.rs and then take a look at generated ngap module. (Better CLI support is coming soon.)

Running Test Cases

  1. Test cases can be run through cargo test.
  2. Right now examples/ directory contains simple decode test cases for modules generated using the asn-compiler. This support will be improved to include the generated modules using mechanisms like build.rs.