[comp.protocols.iso.x400] Info on EAN - UBC X.400

messing@gateway.mitre.ORG (03/22/90)

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Date: 20 Mar 90 12:08 -0800
From: John Demco <demco@cdnnet.ca>
To: <messing@gateway.mitre.org>
In-Reply-To: <9003201625.AA20823@gateway.mitre.org>
Message-Id: <15755*demco@CDNnet.CA>
Subject: X.400 implementation

Judy,

Thanks for your message. Yes, we do have an X.400 implementation
called Ean which was developed here at the University of British
Columbia (UBC). It is used in the Canadian OSI network CDNnet, and it
is also used in several OSI networks in other countries.

The software is an implementation of X.400(1984), including both a
Message Transfer Agent (MTA) and a User Agent (UA). The main UA is a
line-at-a-time program, although interfaces for the Macintosh (from
the University of Oslo) and for X are being developed. Also included
in an X.400/RFC-822 gateway. This corresponds somewhat to the mappings
specified in RFCs 987 and 1026, especially in the area of address
mapping, although our gateway software predates the RFCs and does not
attempt to conform in detail. The UA--a version not yet being
distributed--can present addresses to the user in either the X.400
attribute style, or in the RFC 822 style (thanks to work done at
Trondheim, Norway and by GMD in West Germany).

The main platforms for Ean are UNIX (mainly BSD) and VMS.  For
inter-MTA communications, Ean supports the use of TP0/X.25,
TP0/asynch, TP0/DECNET, and TP0/TCP (both RFC 1006 and our own
encapsulation).

We are presently testing the software for use with Telecom Canada's
commerical e-mail service Envoy. We have experienced no major problems
with the testing so far.

The software is used in production. One example is its use at UBC,
where CDNnet has its headquarters.  There are MTAs in approximately 25
departments. The hub MTA is relay.cdnnet.ca which is also the main hub
for CDNnet, and acts as an e-mail gateway into the Internet. The hub
is fairly busy: an average day sees approximately 10000 messages
in+out. (By way of comparison, I believe that traffic through the
CSNet hub is about twice as great.) The relay.cdnnet.ca host is
presently a Sun-3/60 with 8M of memory and a Wren V disk.

CDNnet acts on behalf of UBC to license and distribute Ean to academic
organizations. We are presently trying to get permission to license
the software more widely for noncommercial use. The commercial rights
to Ean are held by OSIware (+1 604 436 2922). Also, we are trying
to get UBC approval to license Ean to the University of Wisconsin for
possible use in their NASA-supported X.400 pilot in the Internet.

UBC is currently testing its own X.500 implementation. This development
has been directed by Gerald Neufeld (who designed Ean/X.400) and
includes staff from UBC Computer Science, CDNnet, and OSIware.

The Ean software package includes an X.25 kernel implementation for
BSD UNIX. I believe negotiations are under way to have some of this
software included with 4.4BSD. The main configurations supported are
the Vax with a DMF32, and the Sun3 with its A/B ports (under SunOS
4.0.1).

Incidentally, I do not know how much longer CDNnet will be around.
Support for our OSI network is decreasing. I think a major factor is
the rapid rise of interest in Internet-style networking in Canada, as
evidenced by the forthcoming Canadian IP backbone network CA*net and
the establishment of Canadian regional networks. In any case, I expect
that UBC and OSIware will continue to develop, license, distribute,
and support UBC's OSI software.

Regards,
John Demco                        demco@CDNnet.CA
CDNnet Headquarters               +1 (604) 228 6537 (telephone)
University of British Columbia    +1 (604) 228 5116 (facsimile)
403 - 6356 Agricultural Road
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada  V6T 1W5

P.S. I understand that your original request went to a mailing list.
If you wish, please feel free to copy this message to that list.

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