X.400 mail

1
X.400 mail
2
Credit

• Based on
• RFC 1506 A Tutorial on Gatewaying between X.400
  and Internet Mail

3
An overview of relevant standards

• mail systems used
• in the USA
• in Europe
• Mail growth started as early as in the seventies.
• Different company-specific mail systems were
  developed simultaneously
• a high degree of incompatibility.

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Genesis of X.400

• Quest acceptable global mail standard by CCITT
  and ISO to solve incompatibility problems
• Result X.400 Series Recommendations
• a superset of the existing systems
• Idea behind this easier integration later on
• October 1984, CCITT X.400 series recommendations
  X.400(84)
• the first CCITT recommendation for a network
  application.

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Some typical positive features of X.400

• the store-and-forward mechanism
• the hierarchical address space
• the possibility of combining different types of
  body parts into one message body.

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Adapted best in Europe

• not much equipment in place yet
• use X.400 as much as possible right from the
  beginning.
• But the expected success of X.400 disappointing
• Example Isabel

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The User Agent (UA)

• a process that makes the services of the MTS
  available to the user
• A program that provides utilities to create,
  send, receive and perhaps archive messages.

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The Message Transfer system (MTS)

• transfers messages from an originating UA to a
  recipient UA.
• data sent from UA to UA may be stored temporarily
  in several intermediate Message Transfer Agents
  (MTA)
• a store-and- forward mechanism MTA forwards
  received messages to a next MTA or to the
  recipient UA.

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RFC 1327

• gateway functionality X.400 - RFC 822mail
  gateway
• receive a mail from one mail world
• translate it into the formats of the other mail
  world
• send it using the routing rules and protocols of
  that other world

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Service Elements

• examples originator, subject
• goal of gateway to maintain the highest
  possible service level when a message crosses the
  boundary between the two mail worlds.- map
  between the service elements- map the types and
  values assigned to these service elements
• very simple, e.g., 'IA5 -gt ASCII'
• most complicated mapping address spaces.

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Map service elements

• Reply-To IPMS.Heading.reply-recipients
• Subject IPMS.Heading.subject
• In-Reply-To IPMS.Heading.replied-to-ipm
• References IPMS.Heading.related-IPMs
• To IPMS.Heading.primary-recipients
• Cc IPMS.Heading.copy-recipients

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Service element

• Service element types
• ASCII PrintableString
• Boolean Boolean
• Service element values
• oh_dear oh(u)dear
• False 00000000

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RFC 822 -gt X.400

• If Sender is present
• Sender is mapped to IPMS.Heading.originator
• From is mapped to IPMS.Heading.authorizi
  ng-users
• If not
• From is mapped to IPMS.Heading.originato
  r

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X.400 -gt RFC 822

• If IPMS.Heading.authorizing-users is present
• IPMS.Heading.originator is mapped to Sender
• IPMS.Heading.authorizing-users is mapped to From
• If not
• IPMS.Heading.originator is mapped to From

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Mail Envelope attributes

• RFC 1327 doesn't define how to map the
  MTS.OriginatorName and the MTS.RecipientName
• this depends on which underlying 822-
  MTS
• For SMTP the mapping is as follows
• MTS.Originator-name lt-gt MAIL FROM
• MTS.Recipient-name lt-gt RCPT TO

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Mail Address mapping

• often considered the most complicated part of
  mapping
• Both RFC 822 and X.400 have their own specific
  address formats
• RFC 822 addresses are text strings (e.g.,
  "plork_at_tlec.nl")
• X.400 addresses are binary encoded sets of
  attributes with values

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Human readable notations

• Czz
• ADMDade
• PRMDfhbo
• Oa bank
• Splork
• Gmary

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X.400 addresses

• X.400 address a set of attributes
• attributes mandatory or optional
• attribute type and a value
• example Surname has type IA5text
• Standard Attributes
• attributes that all X.400 installations are
  supposed to 'understand'
• example 'country name', 'given name' or
  'organizational unit'

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Most important attributes

• surName (S)
• givenName (G)
• initials (I) (Zero or more)
• generationQualifier (GQ)

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Most important attributes (cont.)

• OrganizationalUnits (OU1 OU2 OU3 OU4)
• OrganizationName (O)
• PrivateDomainName (PRMD)
• AdministrationDomainName (ADMD)
• CountryName (C)
• Common Name (CN)
• The combination of S, G, I and GQ the
  PersonalName (PN).

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X.400 address notation styles

• JTC
• Gjo Splork Oa bank OU1owe OU2you
  Pfhbo Aade Czz- DFN-EAN software
• Gjo Splork OUyou OUowe Oa bank
  PRMDfhbo ADMDade Czz
• RARE Working Group on Mail and Messaging
• Czz ADMDade PRMDfhbo Oa bank OUowe
  OUyou Splork Gjo

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X.400 address notation styles (cont.)

• RFC 1327
• /Gjo/Splork/OUyou/OUowe/Oa
  bank/Pfhbo/Aade/Czz/
• OUyou.OUowe.Oa bank.Pfhbo.Aade.Czz

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PersonalName and localpart mapping

• Marshall.Rose lt-gt GMarshallSRose
• M.T.Rose lt-gt IMTSRose
• Marshall.M.T.Rose lt-gt GMarshallIMTSRose

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Lotus Notes e-mail
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Lotus Notes basis

• Notes stores information in databases
• Files with extension .nsf
• Each database contains information about a
  particular subject
• Examples
• Company Policies
• Product Information

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Designing a database

• the type of information the database will
  contain.
• Databases can contain reports for to complete
• Examples
• attendance reports
• expense reports

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Database documents

• A database contains many documents.
• Each of these documents is about a particular
  topic.
• ExampleCompany Policies database
• a topic about parking
• one about sick days

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Database properties

• read-only
• Create
• Delete
• Modify

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Document creation

• How filling in a form of the database
• forms contain
• Fields
• Buttons
• ...

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Database organization

• many documents search problem
• A view is a way for Notes to display documents in
  a database.
• A view often shows documents
• in a particular order
• only a portion of the documents

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Example employee database

• contains a document about each employee.
• example views
• all employees listed in alphabetical order by
  last name
• all employees by their departments
• employees who have parking spaces in the company
  parking garage
• employees who have been at the company less than
  a year

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Folders

• Folders let you organize documents to make them
  easier to find.
• example employee database
• a folder to store the documents you use
  frequently
• your boss, department members, friends.
• a copy of the same document can exist in more
  than one folder

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Folders - views

• The difference between a folder and a view
• any document can be put in a folder,
• a view has a formula that determines which
  documents it displays

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Notes mail

• messages in own personal mail database
• receive a message copy in the Inbox folder in
  your mail database.
• Actions read-save-delete-forward-reply
• Mail contains several folders and views
• The messages in a folder or view depends on the
  purpose of the folder or view.

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Example

• views that contain documents from only one person
• only those documents that pertain to a special
  project
• address book database
• names.nsf

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Mail transfer

• Actually not done with mail protocols
• Uses database synchronization
• Server and client have database
• Database can be consulted locally or remotely
• Databases can be synchronized exact replica
• Allows for off-line and on-line working (road
  warriors)

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From proprietary to standards

• Currently supports internet standards
• Example migration from notes ID files to
  certificates (X.503v3)
• Example LDAP queries for address book
• Supports access to POP3 and IMAP4 servers

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Mail infrastructure (simplified)
DNS Server
Internet Mail Client
POP3 Server
Internet Mail Client
DNS Server
DNS Server
LDAP Server
SMTP Server
Notes Client
SMTP Server
Notes Client
Notes Server
SMTP Server
Notes Client
Notes Client
Notes Server
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Other mail systems

• some networks have their own addressing schemes
• oops!user (a UUCP address)
• V13ENZACC_at_CZKETH5A (a BITNET address)
• RFC 822 format
• user_at_oops.uucp
• V13ENZACC_at_CZKETH5A.BITNETNote
• the domains '.uucp' and '.bitnet' have no
  registered Internet routing
• must always be routed to a gateway