OSI PICS Manual

Introduction

Tandem OSI PICS Manual–135046

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How Are PICS Used?

ISO 9646 defines a PICS as “a statement made by the supplier of an OSI

implementation or system, stating which capabilities and options have been

implemented, for a given OSI protocol.” While this statement may be interpreted in

different ways, one generally accepted interpretation is that a PICS is specific to a

protocol but insufficient to fully describe a product. Conformance testing based on

PICS, therefore, is concerned only with protocol questions and demonstration of correct

protocol-based behavior.

For procurement purposes, however, many organizations also use PICS as a means of

describing and understanding products, even though this was not necessarily the original

intent when ISO committees created the concept and the proformas for individual

protocols. While a PICS is useful for this purpose, there are inherent limitations in a

PICS that restrict its ability to adequately describe products for procurement purposes.

For example, a PICS is not good at describing application programmatic interfaces

(APIs) because APIs are outside the scope of ISO protocol standards, although they are

a very important part of a product.

In this manual, each PICS may be used for both conformance and certification testing

and for describing the capabilities and options that have been implemented by Tandem

for a given OSI protocol (as far as is possible within the confines allowed by each PICS

proforma). Some additional information is also provided that goes beyond conformance

testing requirements in order to provide a more useful information set for procurement

requirements.

PICS Version Information

The first page of each PICS in this manual contains identifying information added by

Tandem; this information is not required by any PICS proforma. The information is as

follows:

Standard The high-level name of the standard (for example, ISO

9542 or 1984 CCITT X.400: P1).

Standard Version Detailed information which identifies the specific version

of the standard being described in the PICS (for example,

ISO 8571, First Edition, 1988-10-01).

Proforma The high-level name of the proforma (for example,

FTAM, PICS Proforma ISO/IEC JTC1 SC21).

Proforma Version Detailed information which identifies the specific version

of the proforma being used (for example, ISO 8571-5 :

1990(E) Annex A (normative)).

Tandem Product The full, official name of the Tandem product that

implements the given standard (for example, Tandem

OSI/TS).