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3.3.1.1.1 Association

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Association: An association is a set of RPC transport connections between a client process and a server endpoint. On the abstract level, the association can have any number of connections in it, although memory constraints and limitations of the RPC transport that establishes these connections mean that, in practice, the number of connections in an association is much more limited. All RPC transport connections in a given association are explicitly joined to an association, as specified in section 3.3.1.5.7. Both the client and server have an abstraction for association.

[C706] uses the phrase association group for what this specification refers to as an association.

Each association contains the following properties:

  • Binding handle as specified in [C706] section 6.2.1

  • List of Connections: All connection elements bound to this association.

  • Bind Features Bitmask: An octet bitmask that stores the result of Bind Time Feature Negotiation as defined in section 3.3.1.5.3. When features are successfully negotiated, the bits are set as defined in BindTimeFeatureNegotiationBitmask section 2.2.2.14. When these bits are set in the client and server, they indicate that the corresponding features are supported for this association.

  • List of Supported Transfer Syntaxes: The list of all transfer syntaxes supported by the association.  The content of this list is implementation-specific, and is discussed in [C706] Appendix I.

  • Table of Presentation Contexts: A table of presentation contexts that have been negotiated by one or more connections bound to this association.