Storage SCP
Storage Service Class Provider
A Storage SCP is the role a device plays when it accepts incoming DICOM images, listening for C-STORE requests and storing what it receives — the role a PACS or an archiving viewer performs.
What Storage SCP means in practice
SCP is the receiving half of every DICOM service; the sending half is the SCU. A device can be both at once, accepting studies from a modality while forwarding others onward. Acting as a Storage SCP means holding a listening port open, which is why it is normally disabled until an administrator turns it on and often restricted to an allow-list of calling AE Titles.
Source
This definition follows NEMA PS3.4 Annex B — Storage Service Class; roles in PS3.7, published by NEMA as part of the DICOM standard.
Related terms
Storage SCU
A Storage SCU is the role a device plays when it initiates a C-STORE request to send DICOM images to a Storage SCP — the role a CT or MR console performs when it pushes a finished study to a PACS.
C-STORE
C-STORE is the DICOM network service used to transfer a composite object — an image or similar instance — from one device to another, and it is the operation behind "sending a study" to a PACS.
AE Title
An AE Title is the name a DICOM device identifies itself by on the network, used together with its IP address and port to address it when another device opens an association.
PACS
A PACS is a system that stores, retrieves, distributes and displays medical images, connected to imaging modalities and viewing workstations over a DICOM network.
Related on this site: SoftDicom as a Storage SCP.