This Recommendation | International Standard defines a Systems Management Function that may be used by an application process in a centralized or decentralized management environment to interact for the purpose of systems management, as defined by ITU-T Rec. X.200 | ISO/IEC 7498-1. This Recommendation | International Standard defines a function which consists of generic definitions, services, and functional units. This function is positioned in the application layer of ITU-T Rec.X.200 | ISO/IEC 7498-1 and is defined according to the model provided by ISO 9545. The role of systems management functions is described by CCITT Rec. X.701 | ISO /IEC 10040.

This Recommendation | International Standard:

• defines a service for the management of clocks for use by OSI management and available for use by OSI applications and others;
• establishes user requirements for this Recommendation | International Standard;
• establishes a time management function model, addressing the components of a generic time service involving communication between systems, that relates the service and generic definitions provided by this function to the user requirements;
• defines generic object classes, attribute types, operation types, notification types, and parameters documented in accordance with CCITT Rec. X.722 | ISO/IEC 10165-4;
• specifies compliance requirements placed on other standards that make use of these generic definitions;
• defines the services provided by the function;
• specifies the management protocol that is necessary in order to provide the services;
• defines the relationship between these services and systems management operations and notifications;
• specifies the abstract syntax necessary to identify and negotiate the function unit in the protocol;
• defines relationships with other systems management functions;
• specifies conformance requirements to be met by implementation of this Recommendation | International Standard;
• identifies time synchronization protocols.

This Recommendation | International Standard does not:

• address the provision of time information within a local system;
• define the nature of any implementation intended to provide the Time Management Function;
• specify the manner in which management is accomplished by the user of the Time Management Function;
• define the nature of any interaction which results in the use of the Time Management Function;
• specify the services necessary for the establishment, use, and normal or abnormal release of a management association.