An architecture for a mobile OSI mail access system

摘要

An architecture and implementation which support an interface to the X.400 mail environment using the full open-systems communications protocols for a portable computer are described. The implementation is designed to be used over a cellular radio telephone network. The portable computer is used to implement the user agent interface of the CCITT X.413 (1988) message store. A full set of security facilities, designed for use with interpersonal messaging (IPM), is included in the architecture. A number of important issues are discussed regarding the placement and management of keys for the IPM security, as well as authentication between the user and the portable computer and between the user agent and the message store. To support the use of the CCITT message-store model, it was necessary to implement a full protocol stack for open systems interconnection on the portable computer. The design and the author's experiences are described.