OASIS AMQP Version 1.0, Part 0 : Overview

The Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) is an open internet protocol for business messaging. It defines a binary wire-level protocol that allows for the reliable exchange of business messages between two parties. AMQP has a layered architecture and the specification is organized as a set of parts that reflects that architecture. Part 1 defines the AMQP type system and encoding. Part 2 defines the AMQP transport layer, an efficient, binary, peer-to-peer protocol for transporting messages between two processes over a network. Part 3 defines the AMQP message format, with a concrete encoding. Part 4 defines how interactions can be grouped within atomic transactions. Part 5 defines the AMQP security layers.

This document was last revised or approved by the OASIS AMQP Technical Committee on the above date. The level of approval is also listed above. Check the “Latest version” location noted above for possible later revisions of this document.

Technical Committee members should send comments on this specification to the Technical Committee’s email list. Others should send comments to the Technical Committee by using the "Send A Comment" button on the Technical Committee's web page at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/amqp/.

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←0.1 Introduction

The Advanced Message Queuing Protocol is an open internet protocol for business messaging.

AMQP is comprised of several layers. The lowest level defines an efficient, binary, peer-to-peer protocol for transporting messages between two processes over a network. Above this, the messaging layer defines an abstract message format, with concrete standard encoding. Every compliant AMQP process must be able to send and receive messages in this standard encoding.

←0.1.1 Terminology

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this specification are to be interpreted as described in IETF RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

The XML notation used by the specification is formally defined by the AMQP DTD included in the specification.

←0.1.2 Normative References

[ASCII]
American National Standards Institute, Inc., American National Standard for Information Systems, Coded Character Sets - 7-Bit American National Standard Code for Information Interchange (7-Bit ASCII), ANSI X3.4-1986, March 26, 1986.

[BCP47]
A. Phillips, Ed., M. Davis, Ed., Tags for Identifying Languages. IETF BCP: 47, September 2009.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/bcp/bcp47.txt

[IANAHTTPPARAMS]
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Parameters.
http://www.iana.org/assignments/http-parameters/http-parameters.xml

[IANAPEN]
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), Private Enterprise Numbers.
http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers

[IANASUBTAG]
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), Language Subtag Registry.
http://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry

[IEEE754]
Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic. IEEE 754-2008, August 2008.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/servlet/opac?punumber=4610933

[IEEE1003]
The Single UNIX Specification, Version 4. IEEE Std 1003.1-2008, December 2008.
http://www.unix.org/version4/

[RFC2046]
N. Freed, N. Borenstein, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types. IETF RFC 2046, November 1996.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2046.txt

[RFC1982]
R. Elz, R. Bush, Serial Number Arithmetic. IETF RFC 1982, August 1996.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1982.txt

[RFC2119]
S. Bradner, Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. IETF RFC 2119, March 1997.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt

[RFC2234]
D. Crocker, Ed., P. Overell, Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF. IETF RFC 2234, November 1997.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2234.txt

[RFC2616]
R. Fielding, J. Gettys, J. Mogul, H. Frystyk, L. Masinter, P. Leach, T. Berners-Lee, Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1. IETF RFC 2616, June 1999.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt

[RFC4122]
P. Leach, M. Mealling, R. Salz, A Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace. IETF RFC 4122, July 2005.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4122.txt

[RFC4366]
S. Blake-Wilson, M. Nystrom, D. Hopwood, J. Mikkelsen, T. Wright, Transport Layer Security (TLS) Extensions. IETF RFC 4366, April 2006.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4366.txt

[RFC4422]
A. Melnikov, Ed., K. Zeilenga, Ed., Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL). IETF RFC 4422, June 2006.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4422.txt

[RFC5246]
T. Dierks, E. Rescorla., The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2. IETF RFC 5246, August 2008.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5246.txt

[RFC5646]
A. Phillips, Ed., M. Davis, Ed., Tags for Identifying Languages. IETF RFC 5646, September 2009.
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5646.txt

[UNICODE6]
The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0.0, (Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium, 2011. ISBN 978-1-936213-01-6)
http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.0.0/

←0.1.3 Non Normative References

[AMQPCONNCAP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Connection Capabilities
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/connection-capabilities

[AMQPCONNPROP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Connection Properties
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/connection-properties

[AMQPDELANN]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Delivery Annotations
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/delivery-annotations

[AMQPDISTMODE]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Distribution Modes
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/distribution-modes

[AMQPFILTERS]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Filters
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/filters

[AMQPFOOTER]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Footer
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/footer

[AMQPLINKCAP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Link Capabilities
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/link-capabilities

[AMQPLINKPROP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Link Properties
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/link-properties

[AMQPLINKSTATEPROP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Link State Properties
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/link-state-properties

[AMQPMESSANN]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Message Annotations
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/message-annotations

[AMQPNODEPROP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Node Properties
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/node-properties

[AMQPSESSCAP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Session Capabilities
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/session-capabilities

[AMQPSESSPROP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Session Properties
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/session-properties

[AMQPSOURCECAP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Source Capabilities
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/source-capabilities

[AMQPTARGETCAP]
AMQP Capabilities Registry: Target Capabilities
http://www.amqp.org/specification/1.0/target-capabilities

←0.2 Conformance

A conformant implementation MUST perform protocol negotiation, and then parse, process, and produce frames in accordance with the format and semantics defined in parts 1 through 5 of this specification.

←0.3 Acknowledgements

The following individuals have contributed significantly towards the creation of this specification and are gratefully acknowledged:

Michael Bridgen (VMware)
Xin Chen (Microsoft)
Raphael Cohn (StormMQ)
Allan Cornish (INETCO Systems)
Robert Godfrey (JPMorgan Chase & Co.)
David Ingham (Microsoft)
Andreas Moravec (Deutsche Boerse)
Andreas Mueller (IIT Software)
Simon MacMullen (VMware)
John O'Hara (Individual)
Rafael Schloming (Red Hat)
Gordon Sim (Red Hat)
Angus Telfer (INETCO Systems)

The following individuals were members of the OASIS AMQP Technical Committee during the creation of this specification and their contributions are gratefully acknowledged:

Sanjay Aiyagari (VMware)
Brian Albers (Kaazing)
Matthew Arrott (Individual)
Roger Bass (Traxian)
Allan Beck (JPMorgan Chase & Co.)
Mark Blair (Credit Suisse)
Paul Blanz (Goldman Sachs)
Laurie Bryson (JPMorgan Chase & Co.)
Raphael Cohn (StormMQ)
Allan Cornish (INETCO Systems)
Robin Cover (OASIS)
Raphael Delaporte (Zenika)
Brad Drysdale (Kaazing)
Helena Edelson (VMware)
Chet Ensign (OASIS)
John Fallows (Kaazing)
Paul Fremantle (WSO2)
Rob Godfrey (JPMorgan Chase & Co.)
Steve Hodge (Bank of America)
Steve Huston (Individual)
David Ingham (Microsoft)
Stavros Isaiadis (Bank of America)
Ram Jeyaraman (Microsoft)
Bill Kahlert (HCL America)
James Kirkland (Red Hat)
Hanno Klein (Deutsche Boerse)
Theo Kramer (Flame Computing Enterprises)
Alex Kritikos (my-Channels)
Stanley Lewis (Progress Software)
Mark Little (Red Hat)
Colin MacNaughton (Progress Software)
Mansour Mazinani (SITA SC)
Shawn McAllister (Solace Systems)
Donald McGarry (Mitre Corporation)
Dale Moberg (Axway Software)
Andreas Moravec (Deutsche Boerse)
Andreas Mueller (IIT Software)
Suryanarayanan Nagarajan (Software AG)
John O'Hara (Individual)
Kimberly Palko (Red Hat)
Kenneth Peeples (Red Hat)
Pierre Queinnec (Zenika)
Makesh Rao (Cisco Systems)
Alexis Richardson (VMware)
Rafael Schloming (Red Hat)
Dee Schur (OASIS)
Gordon Sim (Red Hat)
Sunjeet Singh (INETCO Systems)
Bruce Snyder (VMware)
Angus Telfer (INETCO Systems)
Carl Trieloff (Red Hat)
Asir Vedamuthu (Microsoft)
Eamon Walshe (StormMQ)
Denis Weerasiri (WSO2)
Wang Xuan (Primeton Technologies)
Prasad Yendluri (Software AG)

←0.4 Revision History

Revision	Changes
WD01	AMQP-1 : Make the definition of flow.echo more explicit
	AMQP-2 : Make it explicit that flow.properties is only for a link
	AMQP-3 : specification/overview.xml has a contributor's name in all caps
	AMQP-4 : specification/overview.xml is slightly inconsistent in use of company legal entity names and abbreviations thereof
WD02	AMQP-7 : Typo in SaslInit.hostname description
	AMQP-8 : Slight contradiction in description of hostname in SaslInit and TLS SNI
	AMQP-9 : Could we add a repository for node-properties?
	AMQP-10 : Could we have a repository for additional supported-dist-modes?
	AMQP-11 : Message Properties.content-type MIME types need adjustment to fit new section types
	AMQP-12 : Labelling of headers and section numbers as per the AMQP WG document...
	AMQP-13 : Typo: Transactions in 4.4.1 transactional Posting "Settles" - > "Settle"
	AMQP-14 : PDF Document should use Sans-Serif font to be consistent with OASIS Standards
	AMQP-15 : Move copyright statement to second line of footer to be in line with OASIS style
	AMQP-16 : References to INETCO should be "INETCO Systems Limited"
	AMQP-17 : Typo in AMQP Open.hostname description
	AMQP-18 : Add figure titles to the HTML presentation
	AMQP-19 : Fix generated (sub-)section titles in the PDF where they contain a dash ("-")
	AMQP-20 : PDF Presentation: use correct "open" and "close" double quotes
	AMQP-21 : Change presentation of cross-references to show only section number, not title
	AMQP-22 : Transport: Incoporate feedback from Steve Huston's review
	AMQP-23 : Abstract/Introduction: Incoporate feedback from Steve Huston's review
	AMQP-24 : Update XML transformation to render "n byte" as "n-byte"
	AMQP-25 : Types: Incoporate feedback from Steve Huston's review
	AMQP-26 : Transport: Incoporate feedback from Steve Huston's review (2)
	AMQP-27 : add missing diagram titles
	AMQP-28 : Confused use of the terms two's-complement" and "signed"
	AMQP-30 : Clarify version negotiation
	AMQP-31 : Figure numbering incorrect in the HTML presentation
	AMQP-32 : Clarify open behavior
	AMQP-33 : Tighten conformance language for 2.4.5
	AMQP-34 : Add description of HDR_EXCH state in 2.4.6
	AMQP-35 : Clarifications to 2.6.12
	AMQP-40 : Incorrect title for IEEE1003 reference
	AMQP-45 : Transactions: Incorporate feedback from Steve Huston's review
	AMQP-46 : Security: Incorporate feedback from Steve Huston's review
	AMQP-48 : Remove capitalization of certain terms within the specification
	AMQP-49 : Description of "dynamic" field refers to non-existent concepts of "session name" and "client-id"
WD03	AMQP-29 : Add introductory description of the spec's XML schema
	AMQP-36 : Clarify that delivery-count is not a count (in 2.6.7 and 2.7.4)
	AMQP-37 : Improve description of snd-settle-mode and rcv-settle-mode
	AMQP-38 : Provide more information as to how an incomplete settled map is resolved
	AMQP-39 : Clarify settlement on multi-transfer deliveries
	AMQP-41 : Rephrase language around keys in annotations
	AMQP-42 : Clarify use of error field in rejected outcome
	AMQP-44 : Specification should refer to AMQP.org document as related (superseded) work
	AMQP-47 : Messaging: Incorporate feedback from Steve Huston's review
WD04	AMQP-43 : Review comments from Ram Jeyaraman
WD05	AMQP-50 : Section 3.2.16 is rendered differently in the html and pdf versions of the draft.
	AMQP-51 : Add missing acknowledgments
	AMQP-52 : Appendix A DTD is missing in the PDF document.
	AMQP-53 : Add Revision History
	AMQP-54 : Fix capitalization differences between HTML and PDF on front page
	AMQP-55 : Change labeling of DTD on front page
	AMQP-57 : Unresolved cross references due to removal of redundant subsection
WD06	AMQP-58 : Fix capitalization of headings on front page material
	AMQP-59 : Add missing acknowledgments
	AMQP-60 : Correct PDF ToC entry for DTD
WD07	AMQP-61 : Fixes to front-matter presentation

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