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<concept id="GUID-3EF88A1D-CCB6-5DE5-9CA6-F6E785A6898A" xml:lang="en"><title>Communications

Framework Quick Start</title><shortdesc>This topic describes the activities that users can do to make use

of the Communications Framework. </shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<section id="GUID-DBF1C87D-7360-54B7-8658-B6659BF77F06-GENID-1-12-1-9-1-1-5-1-3-1"><title>Getting started

with Communications Framework</title> <ul>

<li id="GUID-2EF077BD-0194-5C6B-B4B6-A226A09DBA5D"><p>To manage communications

connections and transfer data, use the client interfaces provided by the Sockets

Server, together with additional interfaces that are provided by implementations

of specific communications protocols. For example, to communicate over the

TCP protocol, use the Sockets Server together with the Internet Sockets libraries

provided by Networking Services. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-D57F54F9-8006-54E8-991B-C6180D53F00C"><p>To implement new communications

protocols, implement plug-ins that conform to the Comms Architecture. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-7AC9CA5C-7138-5526-8CAE-B42B852B2F8C"><p>To configure the communications

set up of a phone, use the Comms Database. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-CE7D99C4-7F70-58D1-8221-66BC71403C49"><p>To communicate over

a serial port, such as RS232, and to access other communications protocols

that can be used in a similar way, use the Serial Communications Server. </p> </li>

</ul> </section>

<section id="GUID-C0D0A389-FAEE-4077-9584-FE7A85E9572E"><title>Architecture</title> <p>The Communications Framework enables

communication in mobile devices. It allows the devices to connect to networks,

create and store network settings, manage memory used for communications,

and send and receive data. </p> <p>The Communications Framework comprises

the following collections: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-E9C6BC79-01AD-53E4-8885-486D7B3E0CDB"><p> <b>Communications Process

and Settings</b>  </p> <p>This collection contains the Comms Root Server and

Comms Root Server Configurator components. For more information see <xref href="GUID-2FED5145-58E4-5560-8E52-6BD499EECE13.dita">Root Server</xref>. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-08F51E77-4EE3-580C-922D-16D366ADD559"><p> <b>Communications Configuration</b>  </p> <p>This

collection contains the Comms Database. The Comms Database contains data about

all of the settings in the communication framework. For more information about

the Comms Database, see <xref href="GUID-BD971173-E009-58DA-AF9C-F4AAFF77B138.dita">Comms

Database</xref>. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-E19E0A03-7B46-51FE-BDFC-0EB0F73F2896"><p> <b>Data Communications

Server </b>  </p> <p>This collection contains the ESock Server and ESock Server

Configurator components. For more information, see <xref href="GUID-2139B04C-6ED6-599B-A018-D92451B8353E.dita">Data

Communications Server</xref>. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-2865D60A-BA76-5937-8A28-09316F5DF699"><p> <b>Communications Framework

Utilities </b>  </p> <p>This collection contains the Comms framework, Comms

Elements and MBuf Manager. For more information, see <xref href="GUID-12D1F61B-6BC6-5215-A832-E84C0F480765.dita">Communications

Framework Utilities</xref>. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-23E59E44-9AC6-5EB4-886A-86549AD875BF"><p> <b>Serial Server and

Serial Comms Server Plug-ins </b>  </p> <p>These collections contain the C32

Serial Server and the C32 Serial Server and the Serial Port CSY. For more

information, see <xref href="GUID-9B83CDD4-FC94-51A0-AC67-CD04BCAFEF08.dita">Serial

Communications Server</xref>. </p> </li>

</ul> <p>The following diagram outlines the Communication Framework collections

and the components associated with each collection. </p> <fig id="GUID-201CB2BD-3398-57FA-B5D7-B38D1FFE77FD">

<image href="GUID-5598B53F-2A6D-5813-913C-94B2AB36134E_d0e106187_href.png" placement="inline"/>

</fig> </section>

<section id="GUID-47666C49-F51E-4297-9222-6ABDD2FF32B8"><title>Technologies</title> <p>The Comms Framework defines the structure

and operations of the communications protocol stack in Symbian platform,

and allows applications to use the stack through a sockets type API. It defines

the concepts, roles, and rules that govern the function of the stack, but

does not itself implement specific protocols, such as TCP/IP, in that stack. </p> <p>This

section describes the key features and technologies implemented by the Communications

Framework. </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-2141A1D6-D3F8-5AA8-AE2A-1E6EAC715E04"><p> <b>Comms Database</b>  </p> <p>The

Comms database comprises a series of tables which are used to store communications

settings. Each table is made up of a set of records. These records are in

turn made up of a series of fields. A field is the basic unit of information

in the Comms Database. For more information, see <xref href="GUID-BD971173-E009-58DA-AF9C-F4AAFF77B138.dita">Comms

Database</xref>. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-64F701EE-FDC3-54EE-A1CB-19B9448F2DA0"><p> <b>Root Server</b>  </p> <p>Root

Server manages the process in which all Communications Servers are loaded.

The process is called <i>C32exe</i> and is also known as <i>C32</i>. For more

information, see <xref href="GUID-236D3822-13C3-5AD8-B0FB-C28732E17CF7.dita">What

is Root Server and the C32exe Process?</xref>. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-9299C35C-4EBD-534F-9B72-813D7D6EF981"><p> <b>ESock Server</b>  </p> <p>ESock

Server provides a generic interface to communications protocols through communication

end points known as sockets. They provide a generic interface to network level

communications protocols for common operations involved in network computing.

These include sending data, receiving data, establishing connections, and

configuring network protocols. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-B2449768-EC88-5FFE-9AA2-017FDCBACF50"><p> <b>Network Interface

Manager</b>  </p> <p>The Network Interface Manager (NifMan) creates and manages

network interfaces. The Network interfaces enable the devices to connect to

networks. For more information about NifMan, see <xref href="GUID-31371091-A28D-5203-BE6A-0F182F99582D.dita">Network

Interface Manager (NifMan)</xref>. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-3E3E2DFC-12A2-5E56-B5AC-D1A7B4C73DC1"><p> <b>MBufManager</b>  </p> <p>An

MBuf is part of the implementation of a buffer in the Comms Architecture and

represents a section of memory. The Communications framework creates a MBufs

when the device starts. The MBufManager provides memory management for the

Comms processes. For more information about buffers and MBufs, see <xref href="GUID-A248C2C0-5F64-5484-85B2-57C86E3499E1.dita">Memory

Management</xref>. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-C359C51A-2A1A-596C-9492-490FD97A4D91"><p> <b>C32 Serial Server</b>  </p> <p>The

Serial Communications Server provides a public API to access the serial ports

of the device. It provides functionality such as timeouts and port sharing

for all Serial Protocol Modules. For more information, see the <xref href="GUID-6C7B7778-9B2E-5D8C-B2D8-74AC1DEEDF61.dita">Serial

Communications Server</xref>. </p> </li>

</ul> </section>