After writing several different custom serial protocols for various projects, I've started to become frustrated with re-inventing the wheel every time. In lieu of continuing to develop custom solutions for every project, I've been searching for a more general solution. I was wondering if anyone knows of a serial protocol (or better yet, implementation) that meets the following requirements:
Speed isn't too much of an issue, we're willing to give up some speed in order to meet some of those other needs. We would, however, like to minimize the amount of required resources.
I'm about to start implementing a sliding window protocol with piggybacked ACKs and without selective repeat, but thought that perhaps someone could save me the trouble. Does anyone know of an existing project that I could leverage? Or perhaps a better strategy?
UPDATE
I have seriously considered a TCP/IP implementation, but was really hoping for something more lightweight. Many of the features of TCP/IP are overkill for what I'm trying to do. I'm willing to accept (begrudgingly) that perhaps the features I want just aren't included in lighter protocols.
UPDATE 2
Thanks for the tips on CAN. I have looked at it in the past and will probably use it in the future. I'd really like the library to handle the acknowledgements, buffering, retries etc, though. I guess I'm more looking for a network/transport layer instead of a datalink/physical layer.
UPDATE 3
So it sounds like the state of the art in this area is:
Please feel free to post more answers if you come across this question.
Have you considered HDLC or SDLC?
There's also LAP/D (Link Access Protocol, D-Channel).
Uyless Black's "Data Link Protocols" is always nearby on my bookshelf - you might find some useful material in there too (even peruse the TOC & research the different protocols)