RNDIS
Encyclopedia
The Remote Network Driver Interface Specification (RNDIS) is a Microsoft
proprietary protocol used mostly on top of USB. It provides a virtual Ethernet
link to most versions of the Windows
operating system. A partial RNDIS specification is available from Microsoft, but Windows implementations have been observed to issue requests not included in that specification, and to have undocumented constraints. In addition, the protocol is tightly coupled to Microsoft's programming interfaces and models, most notably the Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS)
, which are alien to operating systems other than Windows. These issues complicate third-party implementations.
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) defines at least three non-proprietary USB Communications Device Class (CDC) protocols with comparable "virtual Ethernet" functionality; one of them (CDC-ECM) predates RNDIS and is widely used for interoperability with non-Microsoft operating systems, but it has no native Windows support.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
proprietary protocol used mostly on top of USB. It provides a virtual Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
link to most versions of the Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
operating system. A partial RNDIS specification is available from Microsoft, but Windows implementations have been observed to issue requests not included in that specification, and to have undocumented constraints. In addition, the protocol is tightly coupled to Microsoft's programming interfaces and models, most notably the Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS)
Network Driver Interface Specification
The Network Driver Interface Specification is an application programming interface for network interface cards . It was jointly developed by Microsoft and 3Com Corporation, and is mostly used in Microsoft Windows, but the open-source NDISwrapper and Project Evil driver wrapper projects allow...
, which are alien to operating systems other than Windows. These issues complicate third-party implementations.
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) defines at least three non-proprietary USB Communications Device Class (CDC) protocols with comparable "virtual Ethernet" functionality; one of them (CDC-ECM) predates RNDIS and is widely used for interoperability with non-Microsoft operating systems, but it has no native Windows support.