10. A system for transmitting data formatted in an extensible markup language (XML), comprising: a parser configured to convert from an extensible markup language (XML) representation that is compatible with standard XML to a single data stream binary representation by providing binary data representations for element start tags and data values within the XML representation and by not providing binary data representations for element end tags within the XML representation; wherein the binary data representations are each formed using X-bit bytes; and wherein consistent extensible encoding is provided for each binary data representation by using a most-significant-bit of each X-bit byte as a termination indicator bit where a first logic level indicates the byte is a termination byte and a second logic level indicates that more bytes are included in a multi-byte data word, and the XML representation and the binary representation being defined according to document type definition (DTD); and a communication interface coupled to the parser and configured to transmit the single data stream binary representation to an external system through a network; wherein the element start tags are represented using positive integer binary data representations; and wherein the data values are represented using binary data representations selected from a group comprising a string, an integer, a floating point number, an enumerated value, a pattern, and a packed component.
15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the network comprises a communication channel having a bandwidth of less than or equal to about 9600 baud.