Interface & Cartridge Architecture

Capability Negotiation determines the safe and mutually supported operating configuration of connected components.

Negotiation shall begin only after identity and initial compatibility have been established. For passive interfaces, negotiation may occur during engineering design and configuration approval. For active interfaces, it may occur automatically during commissioning or reconnection.

The negotiation process shall:

exchange or retrieve Capability Declarations;

verify declaration authenticity and version;

compare provided and required capabilities;

identify the common operating range;

apply project and Regional Engineering Profile limits;

resolve optional capabilities;

identify conflicts or missing dependencies;

select the permitted operating configuration;

record the result;

authorize or reject operation.

The negotiated value shall never exceed:

the provider’s verified capacity;

the consumer’s acceptable range;

the interface-class limit;

the project-design limit;

the regional or regulatory limit;

the current degraded-state limit.

Where two components support different performance levels, they may operate at the lower mutually supported level if that level satisfies the design requirement.

Automatic negotiation shall not alter structural capacity, safety classification, emergency behavior, or regulatory configuration without authorized engineering approval.

Conflicts shall not be silently resolved by selecting an arbitrary default. If no safe common configuration exists, the interface shall remain physically safe but operationally uncommissioned.

Negotiation results shall identify which capabilities were:

accepted;

limited;

disabled;

unavailable;

rejected;

reserved for future activation.

A change in firmware, configuration, connected equipment, Regional Engineering Profile, or component condition may require renegotiation.