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rfc:rfc1569

Network Working Group M. Rose Request for Comments: 1569 Dover Beach Consulting, Inc. Category: Informational January 1994

         Principles of Operation for the TPC.INT Subdomain:
                Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures

Status of this Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
 does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
 this memo is unlimited.

Table of Contents

 1. Introduction ................................................    1
 2. Naming, Addressing, and Routing .............................    2
 2.1 Addressing .................................................    2
 2.2 Routing ....................................................    3
 3. Procedure ...................................................    3
 3.1 MAILing versus SENDing .....................................    4
 3.2 Latency ....................................................    4
 4. Usage Examples ..............................................    5
 4.1 MIME-based .................................................    5
 4.2 Non-MIME ...................................................    5
 5. Security Considerations .....................................    6
 6. Acknowledgements ............................................    6
 7. References ..................................................    6
 8. Author's Address ............................................    6

1. Introduction

 As an adjunct to the usual, two-way electronic mail service, it is at
 times useful to employ a one-way text notification service, called
 radio paging.  This memo describes a technique for radio paging using
 the Internet mail infrastructure.  In particular, this memo focuses
 on the case in which radio pagers are identified via the
 international telephone network.
 The technique described by this memo, mapping telephone numbers to
 domain names, is derived from the TPC.INT subdomain.  Consult RFC
 1530, "Principles of Operation for the TPC.INT Subdomain: General
 Principles and Policy" for overview information.

Rose [Page 1] RFC 1569 Radio Paging – Technical Procedures January 1994

2. Naming, Addressing, and Routing

 A radio pager is identified by a telephone number, e.g.,
   +1 415 940 8776
 where "+1" indicates the IDDD country code, and the remaining string
 is a telephone number within that country.

2.1. Addressing

 This number is used to construct the address of a radio pager server,
 which forms the recipient address for the message, e.g., one of:
   pager-alpha@6.7.7.8.0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int
   pager-numeric@6.7.7.8.0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int
 where the domain-part is constructed by reversing the telephone
 number, converting each digit to a domain-label, and being placed
 under "tpc.int." (The telephone number must not include any
 international access codes.)
 In addition, addresses of the form
   pager.ATOM@6.7.7.8.0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int
   pager-alpha.ATOM@6.7.7.8.0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int
   pager-numeric.ATOM@6.7.7.8.0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int
 where "ATOM" is an (optional) RFC 822 atom [1], are reserved for
 future use.  Note that the mailbox syntax is purposefully restricted
 in the interests of pragmatism.  To paraphrase RFC 822, an atom is
 defined as:
   atom    = 1*atomchar
   atomchar=   <any upper or lowercase alphabetic character
                (A-Z a-z)>
             / <any digit (0-9)>
             / "!" / "#" / "$" / "%" / "&" / "'" / "*" / "+"
             / "-" / "/" / "=" / "?" / "^" / "_" / "`" / "{"
             / "|" / "}" / "~"
 Finally, note that some Internet mail software (especially gateways
 from outside the Internet) impose stringent limitations on the size
 of a mailbox-string.  Thus, originating user agents should take care
 in limiting the local-part to no more than 70 or so characters.

Rose [Page 2] RFC 1569 Radio Paging – Technical Procedures January 1994

2.2. Routing

 The message is routed in exactly the same fashion as all other
 electronic mail, i.e., using the MX algorithm [2].  Since a radio
 pager server might be able to access many radio pagers, the
 wildcarding facilities of the DNS [3,4] are used accordingly.  For
 example, if a radio pager server residing at "dbc.mtview.ca.us" is
 willing to access any radio pager with a telephone number prefix of
   +1 415 940
 then this resource record might be present
  • .0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int. IN MX 10 dbc.mtview.ca.us.
 Naturally, if several radio pager servers were willing to access any
 radio pager in that prefix, multiple MX resource records would be
 present.
 It should be noted that the presence of a wildcard RR which matches a
 radio pager server's address does not imply that the corresponding
 telephone number is valid, or, if valid, that a radio pager is
 identified by the phone number.  Rather, the presence of a wildcard
 RR indicates that a radio pager server is willing to attempt access.

3. Procedure

 When information is to be sent to a radio pager, the user application
 constructs an RFC 822 message, containing a "Message-ID" field and a
 textual content (e.g., a "text/plain" content [5]).
 The message is then sent to the radio pager server's electronic mail
 address.
 The radio pager server begins by looking at the local part of the
 address.  If the local-part is the literal string "pager-alpha" then
 this indicates that the recipient is using an alpha-numeric pager.
 The radio pager server consults a local database to determine how to
 send the page based on the domain-part.  This local knowledge
 includes information about the protocol used to talk to the paging
 network and the access number.  As such, a radio pager server will
 register itself in the DNS as providing service only to those phone
 numbers for which it has such knowledge.
 Otherwise, if the local-part is the literal string "pager-numeric"
 then this indicates that the recipient is using a numeric pager.  The
 radio pager server may consult a local database to determine how to
 send the page based on the domain-part; or, it may dial the number

Rose [Page 3] RFC 1569 Radio Paging – Technical Procedures January 1994

 specified in the domain-part directly.
 For alpha-numeric pagers, the radio pager server determines which
 information found in the headers and body of the message are used
 when constructing the paging message.  For example, some radio pager
 servers might choose to examine the "To" and "Subject" fields, in
 addition to the body, whilst other radio pager servers might choose
 to simply send the body verbatim.
 For numeric pagers, the radio pager server sends only the body, which
 must consistent solely of digits.

3.1. MAILing versus SENDing

 An SMTP client communicating with a radio pager server may use
 attempt either the MAIL or SEND command.  The radio pager server MUST
 support the MAIL command, and MAY support any of the SEND, SOML, or
 SAML commands.
 If the MAIL command is used, then a positive completion reply to both
 the RCPT and DATA commands indicates, at a minimum, that the message
 has been queued for transmission into the radio paging network for
 the recipient, but is at least queued for transmission into the radio
 paging network.
 If the SEND command is used, then a positive completion reply to both
 the RCPT and DATA commands indicates that the message has been
 accepted by the radio paging network for delivery to the recipient.
 If the SOML or SAML command is used, then a positive completion reply
 to both the RCPT and DATA commands indicates that the message may
 have been accepted by the radio paging network for delivery to the
 recipient.

3.2. Latency

 Although the Internet electronic mail service tends to perform
 delivery in a timely and reliable manner, some paging services will
 wish to provide a higher degree of assurance to their clients, in
 particular guaranteeing that a positive reply code means that the
 page has been sent on the radio network.  For such requirements, the
 primary constraints are server implementation and client/server
 network connectivity.
 A client that uses the SEND or SAML commands is explicitly requesting
 real-time transmission on the radio network and is requiring that the
 server reply code will carry a statement of success or failure about
 that transmission.

Rose [Page 4] RFC 1569 Radio Paging – Technical Procedures January 1994

 The IP level of the Internet performs datagram store-and-forward
 service, but gives the end system hosts the appearance of direct
 connectivity, by virtue of allowing interactive service.  The
 Internet electronic mail service adds another layer of store-and-
 forward indirection, so that messages may go through any number of
 relays (and/or gateways).  This may introduce arbitrarily large
 delays of minutes, hours, or days.
 A client that configures their Internet attachment to permit "direct"
 SMTP connectivity to a pager server will be able to submit paging
 requests to the server directly, without additional SMTP-relaying.
 That is, transmission from paging client to paging server will be one
 "SMTP-hop"only.  This will eliminate any possibility of non-
 deterministic delay by the Internet itself.
 The combination of configuring paging server and paging client to
 allow direct IP/SMTP-level interaction and ensuring that they use
 SEND or SAML commands only will mean that a client receiving a
 positive reply from the server is assured that the page has been sent
 on the radio network.

4. Usage Examples

4.1. MIME-based

   To: pager-alpha@6.7.7.8.0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int
   cc: Marshall Rose <mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us>
   From: Carl Malamud <carl@malamud.com>
   Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 08:38:00 -0800
   Subject: First example, for an alphanumeric pager
   Message-ID: <19930908220700.1@malamud.com>
   MIME-Version: 1.0
   Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
   A brief textual message.

4.2. Non-MIME

   To: pager-numeric@6.7.7.8.0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int
   cc: Marshall Rose <mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us>
   From: Carl Malamud <carl@malamud.com>
   Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 08:38:00 -0800
   Subject: Second example, for a numeric pager
   Message-ID: <19930908220700.2@malamud.com>
   2026282044

Rose [Page 5] RFC 1569 Radio Paging – Technical Procedures January 1994

5. Security Considerations

 Internet mail may be subject to monitoring by third parties, and in
 particular, message relays.

6. Acknowledgements

 This document was motivated by "Simple Network Paging Protocol -
 Version 1", by Allen Gwinn of Southern Methodist University.
 David H. Crocker and Carl Malamud also provided substantive comments.

7. References

 [1] Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text
     Messages", STD 11, RFC 822, University of Delaware, August 1982.
 [2] Partridge, C., "Mail Routing and the Domain System", STD 14, RFC
     974, BBN, January 1986.
 [3] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names -- Concepts and Facilities", STD
     13, RFC 1034, Information Sciences Institute, November 1987.
 [4] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names -- Implementation and
     Specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, Information Sciences Institute,
     November 1987.
 [5] Borenstein, N., and N. Freed, "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail
     Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing
     the Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC 1521, Bellcore,
     Innosoft, September 1993.

8. Author's Address

 Marshall T. Rose
 Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.
 420 Whisman Court
 Mountain View, CA  94043-2186
 US
 Phone: +1 415 968 1052
 Fax:   +1 415 968 2510
 EMail: mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us

Rose [Page 6]

/data/webs/external/dokuwiki/data/pages/rfc/rfc1569.txt · Last modified: 1994/01/06 23:57 by 127.0.0.1

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