HL7 v2 segment fragmentation in MLLP-based IPF IHE components
This feature corresponds to Section 2.10.2.1 (Segment fragmentation/continuation using the ADD segment) of the HL7 v2.5 specification, is supported for both incoming and outgoing messages on both producer and consumer sides, and controlled by the following endpoint URI parameters:
Parameters
| Parameter name | Type | Default value | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|
| supportSegmentFragmentation | boolean | false | whether segment fragmentation should be supported by the given endpoint |
| segmentFragmentationThreshold | int | -1 | threshold (maximal count of characters per segment) for segment fragmentation. Values smaller than 5 lead to no segment fragmentation. |
As stated in the table above, segment fragmentation support can be activated by setting the URL parameter supportSegmentFragmentation of the corresponding endpoint to true. For outgoing messages, the additional parameter segmentFragmentationThreshold should be set to an integer value greater on equal to 5. It denotes the maximal allowed length of segments in outgoing messages, without consideration of segment separators '\r'.
Example
When segmentFragmentationThreshold equals to 10, the message
MSH|^~\&|MESA_PD_CONSUMER|MESA_DEPARTMENT|MESA_PD_SUPPLIER|PIM|20081031112704||QBP^Q22|324406609|P|2.5|||ER QPD|IHE PDQ Query|1402274727|@PID.3.1^12345678~@PID.3.2.1^BLABLA~'@PID.3.4.2^1.2.3.4~@PID.3.4.3^KRYSO||||| RCP|I|10^RD|||||
will be sent as
MSH|^~\&|M ADD|ESA_PD ADD|_CONSU ADD|MER|ME ADD|SA_DEP ADD|ARTMEN ADD|T|MESA ADD|_PD_SU ADD|PPLIER ADD||PIM|2 ADD|008103 ADD|111270 ADD|4||QBP ADD|^Q22|3 ADD|244066 ADD|09|P|2 ADD|.5|||E ADD|R QPD|IHE PD ADD|Q Quer ADD|y|1402 .....
Note that segment fragmentation across messages (described in Section 2.10.2.3 of the HL7 v2.5 specification) is not supported yet.
Combining segment fragmentation with other features
Segment fragmentation can be combined with both [unsolicited message fragmentation] and [interactive message continuation].
Note that in case of outgoing request messages, unsolicited message fragmentation is performed before segment fragmentation, therefore the resulting count of segments can be actually greater than the value of the unsolicitedFragmentationThreshold parameter.