<s>
Fast	B-Protocol
Infoset	I-Protocol
(	O
or	O
FI	O
)	O
is	O
an	O
international	O
standard	O
that	O
specifies	O
a	O
binary	B-Protocol
encoding	I-Protocol
format	O
for	O
the	O
XML	B-Protocol
Information	O
Set	O
(	O
XML	B-Protocol
Infoset	O
)	O
as	O
an	O
alternative	O
to	O
the	O
XML	B-Protocol
document	I-Protocol
format	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
aims	O
to	O
provide	O
more	O
efficient	O
serialization	O
than	O
the	O
text-based	O
XML	B-Protocol
format	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
FI	O
is	O
effectively	O
a	O
lossless	B-Algorithm
compression	I-Algorithm
,	O
analogous	O
to	O
gzip	B-Application
,	O
for	O
XML	B-Protocol
,	O
except	O
that	O
while	O
the	O
original	O
formatting	O
is	O
lost	O
,	O
no	O
information	O
is	O
lost	O
in	O
the	O
conversion	O
from	O
XML	B-Protocol
to	O
FI	O
,	O
and	O
back	O
to	O
XML	B-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Fast	B-Protocol
Infoset	I-Protocol
specification	O
is	O
defined	O
by	O
both	O
the	O
ITU-T	O
and	O
the	O
ISO/IEC	O
standards	O
bodies	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
X.891	O
and	O
ISO/IEC	O
24824-1	O
,	O
and	O
entitled	O
Fast	B-Protocol
Infoset	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Fast	B-Protocol
Infoset	I-Protocol
standard	O
document	O
can	O
be	O
downloaded	O
from	O
the	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
common	O
misconception	O
is	O
that	O
FI	O
requires	O
ASN.1	B-Protocol
tool	O
support	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Although	O
the	O
formal	O
specification	O
uses	O
ASN.1	B-Protocol
notation	O
,	O
the	O
standard	O
includes	O
Encoding	B-Protocol
Control	I-Protocol
Notation	I-Protocol
(	O
ECN	O
)	O
and	O
ASN.1	B-Protocol
tools	O
are	O
not	O
required	O
by	O
implementations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
underlying	O
file	O
format	O
is	O
ASN.1	B-Protocol
,	O
with	O
tag/length/value	O
blocks	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Binary	O
data	O
is	O
transmitted	O
in	O
native	O
format	O
,	O
and	O
need	O
not	O
be	O
converted	O
to	O
a	O
transmission	O
format	O
such	O
as	O
base64	B-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
Fast	B-Protocol
Infoset	I-Protocol
is	O
a	O
higher	O
level	O
format	O
built	O
on	O
ASN.1	B-Protocol
forms	O
and	O
notation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Element	O
and	O
attribute	O
names	O
are	O
stored	O
within	O
the	O
octet	O
stream	O
,	O
unlike	O
traditional	O
ASN.1	B-Protocol
encoding	O
schemes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
consequence	O
,	O
The	O
conventional	O
XML	B-Protocol
file	O
can	O
be	O
recovered	O
from	O
the	O
binary	O
stream	O
without	O
reference	O
the	O
XML	B-Protocol
Schema	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
XML	B-Protocol
Schema	O
need	O
not	O
be	O
expressed	O
as	O
an	O
ASN.1	B-Protocol
definition	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
(	O
ASN.1	B-Protocol
"	O
Tags	O
"	O
are	O
just	O
type	O
names	O
,	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
ASN.1	B-Protocol
together	O
with	O
ECN	O
is	O
used	O
to	O
define	O
the	O
file	O
format	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
Java	B-Language
implementation	O
of	O
the	O
FI	O
specification	O
is	O
available	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
Eclipse	O
Implementation	O
of	O
JAXB	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
library	O
is	O
open	B-Application
source	I-Application
and	O
is	O
distributed	O
under	O
the	O
terms	O
of	O
the	O
Apache	B-Application
License	I-Application
2.0	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Several	O
projects	O
use	O
this	O
implementation	O
,	O
including	O
the	O
reference	O
implementation	O
for	O
JAX-WS	B-Language
used	O
in	O
Eclipse	B-Language
Metro	I-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Because	O
Fast	B-Protocol
Infosets	I-Protocol
are	O
compressed	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
XML	B-Protocol
generation	O
process	O
,	O
they	O
are	O
much	O
faster	O
than	O
using	O
Zip-style	O
compression	O
algorithms	O
on	O
an	O
XML	B-Protocol
stream	O
,	O
although	O
the	O
output	O
is	O
not	O
as	O
well	O
compressed	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
SAX-type	O
parsing	O
performance	O
of	O
Fast	B-Protocol
Infoset	I-Protocol
is	O
also	O
much	O
faster	O
than	O
parsing	O
performance	O
of	O
XML	B-Protocol
1.0	O
,	O
even	O
without	O
any	O
Zip-style	O
compression	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Typical	O
increases	O
in	O
parsing	O
speed	O
observed	O
for	O
the	O
reference	O
Java	B-Language
implementation	O
are	O
a	O
factor	O
of	O
10	O
over	O
Java	B-Language
Xerces	I-Language
,	O
and	O
a	O
factor	O
of	O
4	O
over	O
the	O
(	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
fastest	O
Java-based	O
XML	B-Protocol
parsers	I-Protocol
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Fast	B-Protocol
Infoset	I-Protocol
uses	O
less	O
bandwidth	O
than	O
XML	B-Protocol
and	O
is	O
faster	O
to	O
process	O
,	O
making	O
it	O
a	O
superior	O
choice	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Storing	O
large	O
volumes	O
of	O
data	O
–	O
When	O
storing	O
XML	B-Protocol
to	O
either	O
file	O
or	O
database	O
,	O
the	O
volume	O
of	O
data	O
a	O
system	O
produces	O
can	O
often	O
exceed	O
reasonable	O
limits	O
,	O
with	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
detriments	O
:	O
the	O
access	O
times	O
go	O
up	O
as	O
more	O
data	O
is	O
read	O
,	O
CPU	O
load	O
goes	O
up	O
as	O
XML	B-Protocol
data	O
takes	O
more	O
power	O
to	O
process	O
,	O
and	O
storage	O
costs	O
go	O
up	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
storing	O
XML	B-Protocol
data	O
in	O
Fast	B-Protocol
Infoset	I-Protocol
format	O
,	O
data	O
volume	O
may	O
be	O
reduced	O
by	O
as	O
much	O
as	O
80	O
percent	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Passing	O
XML	B-Protocol
through	O
the	O
Internet	O
–	O
When	O
an	O
application	O
passes	O
data	O
over	O
the	O
internet	O
,	O
network	O
bandwidth	O
can	O
be	O
a	O
major	O
bottleneck	O
,	O
seriously	O
degrading	O
the	O
performance	O
of	O
client	O
applications	O
and	O
limiting	O
the	O
server	O
's	O
power	O
to	O
process	O
requests	O
.	O
</s>
