RFC 2351 (rfc2351) - Page 2 of 23
Mapping of Airline Reservation, Ticketing, and Messaging Traffic over IP
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2351 MATIP May 1998
9. MATIP FORMAT FOR TYPE A HOST-TO-HOST TRAFFIC 15
9. 1 Control Packet Format 15
9.1.1 Session Open format (SO) 15
9.1.2 Open Confirm format (OC) 17
9.1.3 Session Close (SC) 17
9.2 Data Packet Format 18
10. MATIP FORMAT FOR TYPE B TRAFFIC 19
10.1 Control packet format 19
10.1.1 Session Open format (SO) 19
10.1.2 Open confirm format (OC) 20
10.1.3 Session Close (SC) 21
10.2 Data packet format 21
11. SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS 22
12. AUTHOR'S ADDRESS 22
13. FULL COPYRIGHT STATEMENT 23
1. Introduction
The airline community has been using a worldwide data network for
over 40 years, with two main types of traffic:
Transactional traffic
This is used typically for communication between an airline office
or travel agency and a central computer system for seat
reservations and ticket issuing. A dumb terminal or a PC accesses
the central system (IBM or UNISYS) through a data network.
This traffic is also called TYPE A and is based on real-time
query/response with limited protection, high priority and can be
discarded. The user can access only one predetermined central
computer system. In case of no response (data loss), the user can
duplicate the request.
Messaging
This is an e-mail application where real-time is not needed.
However a high level of protection is required. The addressing
scheme uses an international format defined by IATA and contains
the city and airline codes.
This traffic is also called TYPE B and is transmitted with a high
level of protection, multi-addressing and 4 levels of priority.
The detailed formats for TYPE A and TYPE B messages are defined in
the IATA standards.
Robert Informational