2.2.6 Common Payload Syntax
The OData protocol that is defined in this document enables clients and servers to perform actions (for example, CRUD operations) on entities in an Entity Data Model (EDM), as specified in [MC-CSDL], that is represented by using one of multiple possible formats (AtomPub, JSON, Verbose JSON, and so on). Each serialization format or representation of an entity can be used in the payload of request and response messages, as specified in Request Types (section 2.2.7).
AtomPub Format (section 2.2.6.2) specifies how to represent EDM constructs (single EntityType instance, multiple EntityType instances in an EntitySet, NavigationProperties, and so on) by using the AtomPub [RFC5023] format.
[MS-ODATAJSON] and Verbose JSON Format (section 2.2.6.3) each specify how to represent EDM constructs (single EntityType instance, multiple EntityType instances in an EntitySet, NavigationProperty properties, and so on) by using the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) [RFC4627] format: see [MS-ODATAJSON] for the preferred OData 3.0 representation and section 2.2.6.3 for the Verbose JSON legacy representation.
Note that Request Types (section 2.2.7) defines additional payload syntax directives, dependent on the message context, that MUST be adhered to in addition to those defined in this section.