ISO 21323:2016 is designed to be applicable to any kind of space mission or infrastructure that is communication-resource poor and is subject to long latencies and/or temporary network partitions, regardless of complexity. It is intended that this Recommended Standard become a uniform standard among all CCSDS Agencies. In addition, this specification exists to utilize the underlying service of various internetworking protocols both onboard and in transit between ground and space-based assets.

ISO 21323:2016 is intended to be applied to all systems that claim conformance to the CCSDS Bundle Protocol. It is agnostic to the choice of underlying transmission protocol in that BP can function over AOS, Space Packet, Proximity-1 Space Link Protocol, and various Internet and ground based protocols.

The CCSDS believes it is important to document the rationale underlying the recommendations chosen, so that future evaluations of proposed changes or improvements will not lose sight of previous decisions. The concept and rationale for the use of a bundle protocol in space links may be found in reference [H1].