a protocol for communicating with the timing facility used in a data processing network to provide synchronization is provided via the execution of a machine instruction that accepts a plurality of commands . the interaction is provided through the use of message request blocks and their associated message response blocks . in this way timing parameters may be determined , modified and communicated . this makes it much easier for multiple servers or nodes in a data processing network to exist as a coordinated timing network and to thus more cooperatively operate on the larger yet identical data files .