Framing

At its core, a custom data framing format is used to exchange messages between two peers maintaining a connection. No difference is made between TCP-based and UDP-based connections.

Frames generally start with a header, followed by the body holding the frame opcode and the encapsulated message payload. Assume all data to be encoded in little-endian byteorder unless stated otherwise.

Header

Depending on the header type being used, the offsets of data in the following body may be shifted.

Small

For data messages where the DML message payload is below 0x8000 bytes in size, the following header is used:

Large

For data messages above 0x7FFF bytes in length, a different header encoding strategy is employed:

A deserializer should thus determine the size of the frame based on whether the second header field value is >= 0x8000.

Body

The body provides metadata of the contained message payload that is needed to decode it.

Messages are either control messages or data messages which are further detailed in their respective sections.