RFC 1530 (rfc1530) - Page 2 of 7
Principles of Operation for the TPC
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1530 General Principles and Policy October 1993
Overview of Services in the TPC.INT Subdomain
The tpc.int subdomain is organized as a cooperative, an association
organized for the purpose, without gain to itself, of rendering
service as defined in this document and as further defined by the
membership of the cooperative. Members of the tpc.int subdomain
cooperative are defined as those Internet sites who provide access to
services as defined in this document and as periodically amended by
the membership as represented by the Board of Arbitration and
Conciliation for the tpc.int subdomain.
The primary purpose of the tpc.int subdomain is to provide
transparent mappings between users of general-purpose computers on
the Internet and special-purpose devices directly connected to the
telephone network. This mapping extends the population reachable
from the Internet by providing a communications path to devices not
otherwise directly addressable.
The initial remote printing facility is built on top of the
electronic mail protocols of the Internet, including RFC 822 [5] and
MIME [6]. Because the remote printing service uses the message-
handling facilities of the Internet, this service is also available
to message-handling domains that are connected to the Internet
through application-layer gateways (e.g., X.400-compatible systems
[7], UUCP-based message-handling environments [8], and commercial
services such as AT&T Mail), MCI Mail), SprintMail), and CompuServe)
[9]).
Operation of Name Service in the TPC.INT Subdomain
Services in the Internet are identified with a service target name as
listed in the Domain Name System (DNS). These target names are
looked up in the DNS and the appropriate resource records associated
with the name are returned. After the name lookup has been
completed, the initiator exchanges a series of IP packets with an
Internet site which provides access to a service accessible through
the tpc.int subdomain.
In the case of remote printing, the DNS MX resource record is used to
register those Internet sites that provide access to the remote
printing facility. Specifically, an Internet site running a remote
printer server registers itself in the DNS as being willing to
provide access to some portion of the telephone system numbering plan
as registered by one or more MX records within the tpc.int subdomain.
For example, if the host hewes.radio.com is willing to provide remote
printing to devices with telephone numbers beginning with the prefix
+1-415-336, the host would be listed in the Domain Name System with
Malamud & Rose