Magenta Books: Recommended Practices

CCSDS Recommended Practices (Magenta Books) are the consensus results of CCSDS community deliberations and provide a way to capture “best” or “state of the art” approaches for applying or using standards. They may include references to sets of standards selected to perform certain applications, or guidelines for standardized processes or procedures for accomplishing tasks, or other materials (such as reference models) to assist in the design, use or selection of standards. Practices say, “here is how the community recommends that you should carry out or describe this particular kind of operation at present, or how the community recommends that it should be carried out in the future”. Note that while CCSDS Recommended Standards are often concerned with the technical specifications for hardware and software components required for computer communication across interconnected space mission support networks, a Recommended Practice might specify some specific “Application Profiles” of multiple CCSDS Standards that are recommended for use in particular mission support configurations.

Another use of a Practice might be to recognize that the world space mission infrastructure is composed of networks operated by a great variety of organizations, with diverse goals and rules, and that good user service requires that the operators and administrators of these networks follow some common guidelines for policies and operations. While these guidelines are generally different in scope and style from protocol standards, their establishment needs a similar process for consensus building. Reproduction Permission Statement for Publications.