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[#601] BIRTH messages convey both 'now' and 'last change' timestamps - #626
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Aug 31, 2026
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[#601] BIRTH messages convey both 'now' and 'last change' timestamps
Closes #601. Per the spec team decision on the issue. Chapter 6 only, no schema field renamed.
Two normative statements, both
[tck-not-testable]:current as of it.
time — the time that value last changed — and MUST NOT represent read time or publish time.
The second is the behavioural change. Chapter 6 previously called this field "data acquisition time",
which invited an Edge Node to stamp every BIRTH metric with the read time — for a BIRTH, publish time —
collapsing the two times into one. Chapter 4 already said "metric value change time" in six places;
the three Chapter 6 references now match it.
Both are
tck-not-testablebecause the requirement constrains what the number means: a metrictimestamp equal to the payload timestamp may be a genuine change or a substituted publish time, and
nothing on the wire separates them. Consistent with the
timestamps-resolution-scalingdemotion in#624. 0 tck-ids added.
Unchanged: the field name
timestamp = 3, the omitted-timestamp default (still falls back to thepayload timestamp), and the NCMD/DCMD write-time statements.
Also adds a non-normative note that the distinction between a reported and a substituted change time
is carried by field presence, not by value — a consumer needing to know whether an Edge Node reports
change times at all checks presence rather than comparing against the payload timestamp.