Microsoft client-server interoperation uses both industry standard protocols and protocols licensed under the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program (MCPP). An MCPP protocol is either an extension of an industry standard protocol or a Microsoft proprietary protocol. Most MCPP protocols are extensions to industry-standard protocols.

In cases where the MCPP protocol is an extension of an industry standard protocol, the MCPP documentation defines the nature of the extension. In general, it does not describe that part of the protocol already defined in the standards documentation. For Microsoft proprietary protocols, the MCPP documentation defines the complete protocol.

An MCPP protocol can be at the TCP/IP protocol stack level or higher. Most MCPP protocols operate at levels higher than that of the TCP/IP protocol stack.

RPC and Non-RPC Protocols

An MCPP protocol is either an RPC protocol or a non-RPC protocol. For non-RPC protocols, the MCPP documentation includes explicit packet formats.

Because RPC protocols marshal data elements on the wire, their MCPP documentation defines the explicit method calls used to generate and receive packets.

For information about non-RPC protocols' support of domain services operations, Terminal Server operations, media streaming operations, and print operations, see Protocol Operations.

See Also

Interoperation Using MCPP RPC Protocols, Windows Programming Considerations, Windows TCP/IP Stack