1.4 Relationship to Other Protocols

A preferred alternative to the PPP Over IrDA Dialup Protocol is the IrDA Infrared Communications Protocol [IRCOM], which provides emulation of serial and parallel ports over the IrDA TinyTP v1.1 Protocol [IRTTP], IrDA LinkManagement Protocol v1.1 [IRLMP], and IrDA LinkAccess Protocol v1.1 [IRLAP] protocol stack. Because the IrDA Infrared Communications Protocol provides serial emulation, the computer can initialize and use the modem over an infrared link by simply reading and writing to a serial port.

The PPP Over IrDA Dialup Protocol depends on the Infrared Network (IrNet) Protocol [MSDN-IRNET] for the data path pass-through of PPP in HDLC-like framing frames to the TinyTP layer. The following figure depicts the PPP Over IrDA Dialup Protocol and its relationship to the other higher-layer and lower-layer protocols mentioned in this specification.

In the following figure, the term IRPHY (IRDA Physical Layer) refers to the physical infrared hardware device and not to a software protocol.

Protocol stack diagram showing the PPP Over IrDA Dialup Protocol

Figure 1: Protocol stack diagram showing the PPP Over IrDA Dialup Protocol

The PPP Over IrDA Dialup Protocol consists of the IrDial and IrNet components and their relationship to other protocols. Both IrDial and IrNet use TinyTP as their transport protocol.

Note The PPP component includes both [RFC1661] and [RFC1662] encapsulations.