Alf.Hansen@pilot.cs.wisc.edu (Alf Hansen) (09/28/90)
Madison, 09/27/1990.
Alf Hansen
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The NSF X.400 Pilot Project, an offer to PP operators in the US.
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PP Version 5.0 has just been announced. This is an important step
forward in the X.400/Internet mail integration. The new version of PP
together with ISODE will be a basic building block in our striving
for better user services.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we are working on an X.400
Pilot Project with a 2 year grant from NSF. The goal of this project
is to support adoption of X.400 in the Internet. One of our main
activities is to operate an experimental (1984) X.400 service with
full connectivity to the Internet Mail world. Our X.400 service is
participating in the "R&D MHS Service" coordinated by the RARE MHS
Project in Europe. Today we are connected to more than 20 countries
using the X.400 protocols. More than 100,000 real X.400 users are
interconnected and RFC 987 gateways are used to communicate with the
non-X.400 community.
The RARE MHS Project has established procedures for the operation of
the international R&D MHS Service, for example, how to document the
international service, how a new networking organization can join the
service, how RFC 987 address mapping tables are to be produced and
exchanged, how an RFC 987 gateway should be operated, the definition of
an X.400 "Well Known Entry Point" (WEP) and how a WEP should be operated.
International R&D MHS Service requirements are defined and there is an
agreement on a template for international traffic statistics reports.
A full understanding of the operational aspects of an international
X.400 service interconnected with existing E-mail-services, and with
a growing connectivity to the up-coming public X.400 services, has
been developed through several years of experimentation, coordinated
on the international level by RARE WG1 and the RARE MHS Project.
The Wisconsin team working on the NSF X.400 Pilot Project has been
actively involved both in the international service development and
at the national US level; we are now ready to offer users of X.400
systems in the Internet community some of the services they need for
a smooth introduction of X.400 side-by-side with the Internet Mail
service.
The PP-software will be an important element in this service. The NSF
X.400 Pilot Project will operate as a PRMD for an experimental X.400
service in the Internet. Our PRMD (XNREN) will:
* operate an ad hoc Naming Authority; participating organizations can
register their X.400 Organizations (O) and Organizational Units (OU)
* provide guidelines for definition of address mapping between RFC 822
addresses and X.400 Standard Attribute Addresses
* provide guidelines for deployment of RFC 987 gateways, and advise
organizations on procedures that must be followed
* operate a central RFC 987 gateway available for those participating
organizations who do not want to operate their own gateway
* serve as the US contact point to the RARE MHS Project and to
similar projects in other parts of the world
* operate an X.400 WEP connecting the XNREN PRMD to other PRMDs and
ADMDs participating in the R&D MHS Service throughout the world
* perform the necessary US coordination of national RFC 987
address mapping tables. The US tables will be included in the
international tables and distributed to all RFC 987 gateway
operators
* establish service procedures for XNREN, ensuring full internal
and external connectivity
* help support the implementation of connectivity to commercial
X.400 services under the leadership of CNRI
* develop and experiment with internal and external routing strategies
* maintain and distribute the ARGO X.400 software package, available
to a limited number of non-profit organizations
* incorporate technical innovations into the X.400 experiment using
PRMD XNREN as testbed (topics include: an international X.400-based
FAX service, migration to X.400 1988, multimedia extensions, use
of directory services, operation of X.400 over ISO TP4/CLNP and
security extensions)
* collect other's opinions about the many aspects in introducing
X.400 into the Internet
An important long-term goal of our project is to produce a plan for
the future NREN PRMD.
We invite all X.400 users in the US Internet and in particular all PP
operators to join in as participants in our experimental XNREN service.
Contact points:
---------------
The following persons are working on the project:
Allan.Cargille@pilot.cs.wisc.edu
C=us/ADMD=[ ]/PRMD=xnren/O=UW-Madison/OU=cs/PN=Allan.Cargille
Alf Hansen@pilot.cs.wisc.edu
C=us/ADMD=[ ]/PRMD=xnren/O=UW-Madison/OU=cs/PN=Alf.Hansen
The NSF X.400 Pilot Project is under the supervision of
Larry.Landweber@pilot.cs.wisc.edu
C=us/ADMD=[ ]/PRMD=xnren/O=UW-Madison/OU=cs/PN=Larry.Landweber
Rob Hagens@pilot.cs.wisc.edu
C=us/ADMD=[ ]/PRMD=xnren/O=UW-Madison/OU=cs/PN=Rob.Hagens
The following addresses have been established as a common contact point
for the project (operational from 9/28/90):
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ +
+ xnren-postmaster@cs.wisc.edu +
+ C=no/ADMD=[ ]/PRMD=edu/O=wisc/OU=cs/PN=xnren-postmaster +
+ +
+ Phone: +1 (608) 262-5084 +
+ Fax: +1 (608) 262-9777 +
+ +
+ Computer Sciences Department +
+ University of Wisconsin-Madison +
+ 1210 W Dayton Street +
+ Wisconsin 53706 +
+ USA +
+ +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++S.Kille@cs.ucl.ac.UK (Steve Kille) (10/08/90)
Alf, Thanks for this message. I hope that your piloting activities and PP will have a useful symbiosis. A few thoughts: 1) I find the Internet X.400 piloting discussions difficult, as they seem to occur in a policy vacuum (this statement is meant to be provocative). Your description is of laying out a pilot service, with transition to full service. However, I don't see this reflected in overall strategy for the Internet (e.g., as RFCs on overall plan or IETF minutes). 2) Your service model is very oriented to the "external view". This facilitates connection of other WEPs and external commercial services using X.400. There needs to be more focus on an "internal" view. I'd like to see: - Information as to benefits of joining the pilot (short term, strategic) - Model for an organisation to transition / join the pilot. This is non-trivial for any organisation with a serious commitment to local messaging services - managing links within the PRMD (X.400 is oriented to bilaterally agreed links), and intra-PRMD routing. I don't see how the external aspects can be tackled as any sort of service, until there is a coherent internal view. This needs to be considered in terms of overall message service for the organisation, and not just X.400. 3) On managing 987 /1148 mapping tables for PP. UCl provides PP format mapping tables derived from the international tables, which PP sites can pull on a regular basis. US PP sites should submit any mappings they need through you. This will ensure that the mapping is a genuinely global one. Steve
Alf.Hansen@pilot.cs.wisc.edu (Alf Hansen) (10/09/90)
Steve, Some comments to your thoughts: Remember we are not building THE Internet X.400 service. We are doing an experiment, and I really hope that the NSF X400 Pilot Project will contribute to actions in the direction you are indicating. We are working on a position paper that addresses many of the issues you raise. We will use this to initiate a broad discussion in the Internet community. We plan to use the pilot as a testbed for proving the workability of various solutions. I hope that in the end the views will converge, such that the plans and models you are asking for can be developed based on consensus. Looking forward to meet you at Interop and discuss this further. Best regards, Alf H.