The Salutation Manager manages Functional Units. A Functional Unit is an abstract representation of the functions provided by applications, service or devices. These are either Client Functional Units or Service Functional Units, depending on their orientation.
- A Service Functional unit provides some form of service to others on the network. This Functional Unit registers itself with the local Salutation Manager by defining its capabilities there.
- A Client Functional Unit uses the services of others on the network. The Functional Unit makes a request to the local Salutation Manager to search for the Service Functional Units it needs.
The Client Salutation Manager communicates with other Salutation Managers to locate the desired service and report back to the Client Functional Unit.