Manipulating Modules
STREAMS provides the capabilities to manipulate modules from user level, to interchange modules with common service interfaces, and to present a service interface to a stream user process.
These capabilities yield benefits when implementing networking
services and protocols, including:
- User-level programs can be independent of underlying protocols and physical communication media.
- Network architectures and high-level protocols can be independent of underlying protocols, drivers, and physical communication media.
- Higher-level services can be created by selecting and connecting lower-level services and protocols.
Examples of the benefits of STREAMS capabilities to developers for creating service interfaces and manipulating modules are: