RFC 971 (rfc971) - Page 1 of 9

Survey of data representation standards

Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Next >
Network Working Group                                 Annette L. DeSchon
Request for Comments: 971                                            ISI
                                                            January 1986

               A SURVEY OF DATA REPRESENTATION STANDARDS


Status of This Memo

   This RFC discusses data representation conventions in the
   ARPA-Internet and suggests possible resolutions.  No proposals in
   this document are intended as standards for the ARPA-Internet at this
   time.  Rather, it is hoped that a general consensus will emerge as to
   the appropriate approach to these issues, leading eventually to the
   adoption of ARPA-Internet standards.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

1. Introduction

   This report is a comparison of several data representation standards
   that are currently in use.  The standards, or system type
   definitions, that will be discussed are the CCITT X.409
   recommendation, the NBS Computer Based Message System (CBMS)
   standard, DARPA Multimedia Mail system, the Courier remote procedure
   call protocol, and the SUN Remote Procedure Call package.

   One purpose of this report is to determine how the CCITT standard,
   which is gaining wide acceptance internationally, compares with some
   of the other standards that have been developed in the areas of
   electronic mail, distributed interprocess communication, and remote
   procedure call.  The CCITT X.409 recommendation, which is entitled
   "Presentation Transfer Syntax and Notation" is an international
   standard which is a part of the X.400 series Message Handling Systems
   (MHS) specifications [1].  It has been adopted by both the NBS and
   the ISO standards organizations.  In addition, some commercial
   organizations have announced intentions to support a CCITT interface
   for electronic mail.  The NBS Computer Based Message System (CBMS)
   standard was developed previously and was published as a Federal
   Information Processing Standard (FIPS Publication 98) in 1983 [3].
   The DARPA Multimedia Mail system is an experimental electronic mail
   system which is in use in the DARPA Internet [2,4,5].  It is used to
   create and distribute messages that incorporate text, graphics,
   stored speech, and images and has been implemented on on several very
   different machines.  Courier is the XEROX network systems remote
   procedure call protocol [7].  The SUN Remote Procedure Call package
   implements "network pipes" between UNIX machines [6].







DeSchon
Next >