Hi, we run a dicom client as a tool to receive medical images from
PACS. The tranferring speed is fast considering the number of images.
In the client local directory, we get multiple files. Are these images
treated as a single file (eg. concatenated) in transfering so that
there are not echos and waiting for multiple files on TCP/IP? I
haven't found helpful information in PS3.8. Where shall I refer to in
the standard for this kind of format? And is it possible to create
such single large file( if it is a single one)?
Thank you very much.

> Hi, we run a dicom client as a tool to receive medical images from
> PACS. The tranferring speed is fast considering the number of images.
> In the client local directory, we get multiple files. Are these images
> treated as a single file (eg. concatenated) in transfering so that
> there are not echos and waiting for multiple files on TCP/IP? I
> haven't found helpful information in PS3.8. Where shall I refer to in
> the standard for this kind of format? And is it possible to create
> such single large file( if it is a single one)?

In the DICOM network protocol, each object (SOP instance in DICOM terms) is transmitted separately
and the receipt is confirmed by the receiver with a C-STORE-RSP message. If your receiver stores the
incoming images in files, then typically one file equals one DICOM object.
Note that depending on the image type and modality, one DICOM object may contain one or more
images (frames). Transfer in DICOM is always based on object boundaries, not image (frame) boundaries.
Also note that there is a well-defined option in the DICOM network protocol to
minimize the transfer delays caused by the response messages. This is called "asynchronous
window negotiation", but rarely supported by real systems since optional in DICOM.

Regards,
Marco Eichelberg