The Heartbeat monitors the status of the communication link and identifies when the last of a string of messages was not received.
When either end of a FIX connection has not sent any data for [HeartBtInt] seconds, it will transmit a Heartbeat message. When either end of the connection has not received any data for (HeartBtInt + “some reasonable transmission time”) seconds, it will transmit a Test Request message. If there is still no heartbeat message received after (HeartBtInt + “some reasonable transmission time”) seconds then the connection should be considered lost and corrective action be initiated. If HeartBtInt is set to zero then no regular heartbeat messages will be generated. Note that a test request message can still be sent independent of the value of the HeartBtInt, which will force a Heartbeat message.
Heartbeats issued as the result of Test Request must contain the TestReqID transmitted in the Test Request message. This is useful to verify that the Heartbeat is the result of the Test Request and not as the result of a regular timeout.
The heartbeat format is as follows.
Table 8 – Heartbeat
|
Tag |
Field Name |
Req’d |
Comments |
Format |
|
Standard Header |
Y |
MsgType = 0 |
| |
|
112 |
TestReqID |
N |
Required when the heartbeat is the result of a Test Request message. |
String |
|
Standard Trailer |
Y |
|
| |