scope:

Scope and field of application

The ACSE supports two modes of communication: connection-oriented and connectionless. The ACSE service definition (ITU-T Rec. X.217 I ISO/IEC 8649) includes both modes of communication. This Protocol Specification provides the protocol specification for the connection-oriented mode of communication. The protocol specification for the connectionless mode of communication is contained in ITU-T Rec. X.237 I ISO/IEC 10035-1.

This Protocol Specification defines procedures that are applicable to instances of communication between systems which wish to interconnect in an Open Systems Interconnection environment in a connection-oriented mode. The Protocol Specification includes the Kernel functional unit that is used to establish and release application-associations. The Authentication functional unit provides additional facilities for exchanging information in support of authentication during association establishment without adding new services. The ACSE authentication facilities can be used to support a limited class of authentication methods. The Application Context Negotiation functional unit provides additional facility for the selection of the application context during association establishment.

This Protocol Specification specifies:

a) procedures for the transfer of information for application-association control and the authentication of application-entities ;

b) the interaction between an ACSE protocol machine and the occurrence of external presentation events; and

c) the abstract syntax for the representation of the ACSE APDUs.

The ACSE procedures are defined in terms of

a) the interactions between peer ACSE protocol machines through the use of presentation-services; and

b) the interaction between an ACSE protocol machine and its service-user.

This Protocol Specification also specifies conformance requirements for systems implementing these procedures. It does not contain tests which can be used to demonstrate conformance.