Navika Communication Protocol (NCP)

NCP is a small, deterministic network + transport layer library for CubeSat onboard communication. It provides:

• Node addressing (8-bit Node IDs)
• Port-based service demultiplexing
• Static routing table
• End-to-end packet CRC
• Policy hooks (private node protection, broadcast allowlist, etc.)
• Link abstraction (CAN / UART-framed / RS485 / RF gateways) via a simple read/write frame interface
• Health counters for FDIR and debugging

The core is platform-agnostic C++17. Platform adapters (e.g., Linux SocketCAN, STM32 HAL CAN/FDCAN) live under platform/ and are built as separate targets to keep HAL/OS dependencies out of the core.

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Repository layout

• include/
  Public headers for core NCP + stable link APIs (include/links/...)

• src/
  Core implementation (no OS/HAL includes)

• platform/
  Platform-specific link adapters (Linux, STM32, etc.)

• tests/
  Unit tests (pure, no kernel modules required)

• examples/
  Small runnable programs for platform bring-up (e.g., SocketCAN demo)

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Build options (CMake)

NCP exposes only three build options:

• NCP_BUILD_TESTS (default: ON)
  Build unit tests.

• NCP_PLATFORM_LINUX (default: OFF)
  Build Linux platform adapters (e.g., SocketCAN).

• NCP_PLATFORM_STM32 (default: OFF)
  Build STM32 platform adapters (e.g., HAL CAN/FDCAN) — implementation may be added later.

Example: build core + tests only

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build -j

Example: build Linux SocketCAN adapter + examples

cmake -S . -B build -DNCP_PLATFORM_LINUX=ON -DNCP_BUILD_TESTS=OFF
cmake --build build -j

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