Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM)

A MTOM policy enables you to configure how binary data (attachments such as images, PDF files, and so on) is to be transmitted over SOAP.

When the MTOM policy is applied, the SOAP runtime optimizes the binary data transmission using XML-binary Optimized Packaging (XOP).

  • Outbound messages: The binary data for outbound messages (only if the payload has base64binary elements) is optimized.
  • Inbound messages: For incoming messages, regardless of the policy, SOAP runtime infers whether the payload is optimized or not and acts based on that information. That is, when a SOAP service receives a request message or SOAP reference receives a reply message (or business fault) and if that message is optimized, the optimized binary MIME data is converted into Base64 encoded data regardless of the MTOM policy.

This policy can be applied to SOAP services and reference bindings for:

  • SOAP over HTTP
  • TIBCO SOAP over JMS
  • W3C SOAP over JMS
For additional information, refer to: