Basic Encoding Rules

protocol, standard (BER) ASN.1 encoding rules for

producing self-identifying and self-delimiting transfersyntax for data structures described in ASN.1 notations.

BER is an self-identifying and self-delimiting encoding

scheme, which means that each data value can be identified,

extracted and decoded individually.

Huw Rogers once described BER as "a triumph of bloated theory

over clean implementation". He also criticises it as designed

around bitstreams with arbitrary boundaries between data which

can only be determined at a high level.

Documents: ITU-T X.690, ISO 8825-1.

See also CER, DER, PER.

(1998-05-28)