Messaging Protocol

Definition: The rules, formats and functions for exchanging messages between the components of a messaging system. To reference the Application infrastructure as presented in the ATS, Messaging Protocol refers to the rules, formats, and functions implemented in the Messaging Infrastructure Layer for exchanging HL7 messages once they have been passed on from the HL7 applications. Examples include Web Services, ebMS and MLLP.

Addtional notes:

• messaging protocol term is often used to refer to email protocols such as SMTP, IBM's SNADS, etc (see Answers.com). From the HL7 perspective, we refer to these protocols as application transport (or transfer) protocols, to distinguish the feature of messaging protocol (such as ebMS) to use any application transport protocol available (e.g. FTP, HTTP)
• The messaging system usually includes messaging agents (which in this case would be the HL7 Sender and Receiver), transfer agents and the messaging store that together are facilitated by the Messaging Infrastructure Layer in the HL7 Application architecture.

--Miroslav Koncar 08:03, 10 Jul 2006 (CDT)