RFC 1405 (rfc1405) - Page 2 of 19
Mapping between X
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1405 Mail-11 Mapping January 1993
among systems implementing the DECnet Phase IV networking protocols.
1.3. RFC 822
RFC 822 was defined as a standard for personal messaging systems
within the DARPA Internet and is now diffused on top of many
different message transfer protocols, like SMTP, UUCP, BITNET, JNT
Grey Book, CSnet. Its mapping with X.400 is fully described in
RFC 1327. In this document we will try to consider its relations with
Mail-11, too.
1.4. The user community
The community using X.400 messaging system is currently growing in
the whole world, but there is still a number of very large
communities using Mail-11 based messaging systems willing to
communicate easily with X.400 based Message Handling Systems. Among
these large DECnet based networks we can include the High Energy
Physics network (HEPnet) and the Space Physics Analysis Network
(SPAN).
These DECnet communities will in the future possibly migrate to
DECnet Phase V (DECnet-OSI) protocols, converting thus their
messaging systems to OSI specifications, i.e., merging into the X.400
MHS; however the transition period could be long, and there could
always be some DECnet Phase IV communities around.
For these reasons a set of mapping rules covering conversion between
Mail-11 and X.400 is described in this document.
This document also covers the case of Mail-11 systems implementing
the "foreign mail protocol" allowing Mail-11 to interface other mail
systems, including RFC 822 based system.
Chapter 2 - Message Elements
2.1. Service Elements
Mail-11 protocol offers a very restricted set of elements composing a
Inter Personal Message (IPM), whereas X.400 specifications support a
complex and large amount of service elements. Considering the case
where a message is relayed between two X.400 MHS via a DECnet network
this could result in a nearly complete loss of information. To
minimise this inconvenience most of X.400 service elements will be
mapped into Mail-11 text body parts. To consider also the case when a
message originates from a network implementing RFC 822 protocols and
is relayed via Mail-11 to and X.400 MHS, the applied mapping from
X.400 service elements into Mail-11 text body part the rules
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