Message Handling Systems: Interoperability Problems between 1984 and 1988 X.400.

摘要

This is a position/discussion paper for the IFIP WG 6.5 Workshop on MHS Gateways. When the 1988 CCITT X.400 Recommendations are published, they will represent a major extension from those that were presented in 1984. Some of these extensions cover such areas as MHS use of the Directory, a new format for O/R Names, loop detection and suppression, postal delivery, distribution lists and secure messaging. In addition, the Message Store (MS) has been formally defined. Both the MTS Transfer Protocol (P1) as well as the Interpersonal Messaging Protocol (P2) have also undergone considerable changes. A new protocol, the MS Access Protocol (P7) has been introduced for User Agent (UA) to MS interaction. Unfortunately, P1 (88) and P2 (88) are not completely compatible with the protocols specified in the 1984 recommendations. Along with the new capabilities present in the 1988 standards are recommendations on how 1984 and 1988 based implementations are to interwork. Although these recommendations are adequate for current 1984 users, they require a significant reduction in the services available to 1988 users any time they have messages routed through a 1984 system. It is the intent of this paper to try to identify some of the issues in this area, and to suggest possible ways where these interworking problems can be reduced. 11 refs. (ERA citation 14:012498)