RFC 987 (rfc987) - Page 2 of 69
Mapping between X
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 987 June 1986
Mapping between X.400 and RFC 822
Chapter 1 -- Overview
1.1. X.400
The X.400 series protocols have been defined by CCITT to provide
an Interpersonal Messaging Service (IPMS), making use of a store
and forward Message Transfer Service. It is expected that this
standard will be implemented very widely. As well as the base
standard (X.400), work is underway on various functional standards
of profiles which specify how X.400 will be used in various
communities. Many of the major functional standards (e.g. from
CEPT, CEN/CENELEC, and NBS) are likely to be similar. Some of the
decisions in this document are in the light of this work. No
reference is given, as these documents are not currently stable.
1.2. RFC 822
RFC 822 evolved as a messaging standard on the DARPA (the US
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Internet. It is
currently used on the ARPA-Internet in conjunction with two other
standards: RFC 821, also known as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
(SMTP) [Postel82a], and RFC 920 which is a specification for a
domain name system and a distributed name service [Postel84a].
RFC 822, or protocols derived from RFC 822 are used in a number of
other networks. In particular:
UUCP Networks
UUCP is the UNIX to UNIX CoPy protocol , which is usually
used over dialup telephone networks to provide a simple
message transfer mechanism. There are some extensions to
RFC 822, particularly in the addressing. They are likely to
use domains which conform to RFC 920, but not the
corresponding domain nameservers [Horton86a].
CSNET
Some portions of CSNET will follow the ARPA-Internet
protocols. The dialup portion of CSNET uses the Phonenet
protocols as a replacement for RFC 821. This portion is
likely to use domains which conform to RFC 920, but not the
corresponding domain nameservers.
BITNET
Some parts of BITNET use RFC 822 related protocols, with
EBCDIC encoding.
Kille