1. The up-to-dateness vector contains an entry for each domain controller that holds a full replica of the directory partition.
2. The high-watermark vector contains an entry for each domain controller that holds a full replica of the directory partition.
3. Each DC maintains its own, local only, Local USN, on each partition. In the mean time, each DC has a copy of originating USN table.
4. When an attribute is modified(added/removed ...), the local USN is increased by one and assigned to the attribute, the orginating DSA and originating USN are changed/assigned as well. Within an object, the highest USN of all attributes becomes the object's usnChanged, which is an attribute of an object
Note: The maping tables of attributes and USNs are stored locally on DC, they are not part of AD[After more research, I realized that this statement was wrong. Local USNs are stored in AD as well as a blob operational attribute, but you can't view them from normal LDAP]. However, usnChanged is part of an object. Keep in mind that the attribute "usnChanged" is not replicated therefore on different DCs it has different values.
Unlike Local USN, the originating USN/DSA will travel with the new attribute value when replication happens
5. When requested, source DC sends updates in increasing USN order to the destination DC, the destination DC will keep the USN(local to source dc) of the latest updates it receives from a specific DC/partition. This USN is called the High-Watermark to that particular DC/partition. It's guaranteed that object on source DC/partition that have a usnChanged value lower or equal to the High-Watermark have been replicated to Destination DC.
The above statement has two implication:
1) High-watermark is used to filter irrelevant objects from being considered when replication happens between two DCs
2) All High-Watermark values for different DC/partitions together is call High-Watermark vector. It contains value for only directly replication partners.
6. Up-To-Dateness vector is similar to High-Watermark vector except that it contains the highest originating USNs from all source DCs from which it ever gets updates. The source DC compares the Up-To-Dateness value(from Destination DC) to its local originating USN table to decide what attributes need to be replicated. In other words, is used to filter irrelevant attributes from being replicated