Missive time and date stamping

Time and date stamping of the missive must allow a reasonnably reliable dating of the missive, and, as a result, of the message included in the missive. By "reasonnably reliable", we mean a date synchronised with the standardised time servers and available on the internet.

The SEPAmail member will then have to access to a time reference from a time server of level 1 (or level 0), by using the NTP protocol, with a time reset at least once a day. The STIME protocol is not required but possible.

The process to ensure the reliability is based on 3 mechanisms that must be implemented:

• a regular time reset of the sending server which is used for time and date stamping (of the server setting the date in the XML schema of the missive).
• a regular time reset of the receiving server.
• a control of each missive received. The receiveing server controls the time of the missive received by checking its own time.
  • the process logic, if the dates of the 2 servers are identical, is based on the fact that the transmission time of the missive (field SndDtTm present in the missive header) should always be prior the receiving server time.
  • The control is performed by comparing the receiving server time (H2) with the missive time (H1), while considering time zones.
    • if H2 > H1 (nominal case):
      • the missive is processed as usual
      • the acknowledgement missive is sent back with a standard result
    • if H2 < H1 < H2 + 3 seconds:
      • the missive is processed as usual
      • the acknowledgement missive must include a warning (RoutingWarning, A6.7) with a "BAD_TIME" code
      • a time reset of the receiving server is performed
    • si H1 > H2 + 3 seconds:
      • the missive is not processed
      • the acknowledgement missive must specify an error code 4.3.3 (temporary, erroneous time)
      • a time reset of the receiving server is performed
  • while receiving an acknowledgement missive with a code set to 4.3.3 or 5.3.3 or an acknowledgement missive including a BAD_TIME warning, a time reset of the receving server must be performed
  • in addition, if the acknowledgement code is set to 4.3.3, the sending server must send the missive back after this time reset

NOTE: the time and date stamping of the missives should not be mixed up with a possible time and date stamping of the messages, as message time stamping is specific to the business need of the message.