arbitrary.tex

\subsection{Arbitrary (0x06)}

The arbitrary whisker is a special type of whisker. Its content is intentionally not understood by the CATS standard. Instead, any content can be encoded. Most stations will ignore this content. This is also useful if the same packet is to be sent multiple times. To prevent de-duplication by receiving nodes, a different arbitrary whisker can be affixed to each one. \textbf{A valid CATS packet may contain zero or more arbitrary whiskers.}

\subsubsection{Structure}

\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|l|}
  \hline
  \textbf{Byte offset} & \textbf{Length} & \textbf{Value} & \textbf{Description} \\
  \hline
  0 & 1 & 0x06 & Whisker type \\
  \hline
  1 & 1 & $N$ & Whisker length in bytes \\
  \hline
  2 & $N$ & & Data \\
  \hline
\end{tabular}