This would allow a Secondary Site to operate disconnected from the hierarchy for a set amount of time. During this disconnected state the Primary above it would not try to reach out to the Secondary (and vice versa) but would wait (similar to a prestage DP) for the interval specified before trying. Also the Secondary while disconnected would process its client information similar to a Primary and optimize the replication data so that when the connection was re-established there wouldn't be a huge backlog. This would allow hierarchies with devices that have limited or no connectivity for extended periods at a time to be efficiently managed.