For information on the life cycle of a user-defined output node, you should read the corresponding topics for user-defined message processing nodes.
The information in these topics applies to both output nodes and message processing nodes. Both of these node types can be considered together, because although a message processing node is typically used to process a message, and an output node is used to provide an output in the form of a bit stream, you can use either type of node to perform either of these functions.