1 Introduction

This document specifies the .NET Tracing Protocol, which defines a SOAP message header for correlating sets of messages together.

Diagnosing errors in distributed applications is a complex task that usually involves multiple messages. By correlating messages between distributed application endpoints, users can map message exchanges and infer causality relationships between messages. This information helps isolate the set of messages that led up to an error and the set of messages that resulted from it. In a distributed application, this information can also be used to trace the flow of activities through the system. The .NET Tracing Protocol provides simple message correlation functionality to distributed applications.

Sections 1.5, 1.8, 1.9, 2, and 3 of this specification are normative. All other sections and examples in this specification are informative.