1.4 Relationship to Other Protocols

The Print System Remote Protocol is dependent on the RPC protocol specified in [MS-RPCE].

The Print System Remote Protocol does not specify methods for file transfer between client and server; therefore, the Server Message Block (SMB) Version 2.0 Protocol, specified in [MS-SMB2], is the preferred protocol for all file transfer operations, including printer driver downloads.

These protocol relationships are shown in the following figure:

  Protocol Relationships

Figure 4: Protocol Relationships

The Print System Remote Protocol is related to other protocols as follows:

  • The Print System Asynchronous Notification Protocol [MS-PAN] is dependent on the Print System Remote Protocol.

  • The Print System Asynchronous Remote Protocol, described in [MS-PAR], uses many data structures and parameter definitions that are also specified in sections 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 of this specification.

    Note: A print server can optionally include an implementation of Print System Asynchronous Remote with Print System Remote.

  • Limited enumeration of printer configuration information can be done using the Remote Administration Protocol (RAP) [MS-RAP]; however, the Print System Asynchronous Remote Protocol provides richer semantics than RAP. Because RAP is not supported over SMB Version 2.0, Print System Remote is the preferred access protocol for printer configuration information.

  • The print client and print server implementations of this protocol use the Active Directory Technical Specification Protocol [MS-ADTS] to locate domain controllers and use LDAP defined in [RFC2251] to access data in the Active Directory when available. This protocol does not require availability of Active Directory. For more details, see Directory Service Interaction (section 2.3).<1>