In the exchange of information over a communications channel, an out-of-band agreement is an agreement or understanding between the communicating parties that is not included in any message sent over the channel but which is relevant for the interpretation of such messages.
By extension, in a client–server or provider-requester setting, an out-of-band agreement is an agreement or understanding that governs the semantics of the request/response interface but which is not part of the formal or contractual description of the interface specification itself.
Famous quotes containing the word agreement:
“The doctrine of those who have denied that certainty could be attained at all, has some agreement with my way of proceeding at the first setting out; but they end in being infinitely separated and opposed. For the holders of that doctrine assert simply that nothing can be known; I also assert that not much can be known in nature by the way which is now in use. But then they go on to destroy the authority of the senses and understanding; whereas I proceed to devise helps for the same.”
—Francis Bacon (1560–1626)