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+Network Working Group M. Rose
+Request for Comments: 1703 Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.
+Obsoletes: 1569 October 1994
+Category: Informational
+
+
+ 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 Alpha-numeric Radio Pagers ................................ 3
+ 3.2 Numeric Radio Pagers ...................................... 4
+ 3.3 MAILing versus SENDing .................................... 4
+ 3.4 Latency ................................................... 5
+ 4. Usage Examples ............................................. 5
+ 4.1 A MIME Example ............................................ 6
+ 4.2 A Non-MIME Example ........................................ 6
+ 5. Server Configuration Example ............................... 6
+ 6. Security Considerations .................................... 8
+ 7. Acknowledgements ........................................... 8
+ 8. References ................................................. 8
+ 9. Author's Address ........................................... 9
+
+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 1703 Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures October 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.
+
+ In addition to a telephone number, a PIN may also be required to
+ uniquely identify a radio pager.
+
+2.1. Addressing
+
+ This number is used to construct the address of a radio paging
+ server, which forms the recipient address for the message, e.g., one
+ of:
+
+ 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@6.7.7.8.0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int
+
+ where "ATOM" is an RFC 822 atom [1], an opaque string for use in
+ recipient identification when communicating with the paging network,
+ and 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.)
+
+ Note that the mailbox syntax is purposefully restricted in the
+ interests of pragmatism. To paraphrase STD 11, 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 1703 Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures October 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
+ paging 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 paging 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 paging servers were willing to access any
+ radio pager in that prefix, multiple MX resource records would be
+ present. (The DNS servers for the TPC.INT subdomain perform a
+ rudimentary form of load balancing by rotating the order of the MX
+ records returned on each query.)
+
+ It should be noted that the presence of a wildcard RR which matches a
+ radio paging 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 paging 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 paging server's electronic mail
+ address. The radio paging server begins by looking at the local part
+ of the address.
+
+3.1. Alpha-numeric Radio Pagers
+
+ If the local-part is either "pager.ATOM" or "pager-alpha.ATOM" then
+ this indicates that the recipient is using an alpha-numeric radio
+ pager, and ATOM either identifies a paging network (CARRIER), or a
+ radio pager identity number (PIN), or both, according to these rules:
+
+ (1) if ATOM consists entirely of numeric characters, then ATOM is a
+ PIN, and the domain-part refers to the IXO access telephone
+ number for a radio paging carrier; otherwise,
+
+
+
+
+Rose [Page 3]
+
+RFC 1703 Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures October 1994
+
+
+ (2) if ATOM does not contain a hyphen character ("-"), then ATOM is
+ a CARRIER, a local database is consulted to determine the
+ corresponding IXO access telephone number, and the telephone
+ number corresponding to the domain-part is used to identify the
+ radio pager; otherwise,
+
+ (3) if ATOM does contain a hyphen character ("-"), then everything
+ to the left of the first hyphen is a CARRIER, and everything to
+ the right of that hyphen is a PIN, a local database is consulted
+ to determine the corresponding IXO access telephone number, and
+ the PIN is used is used to identify the radio pager.
+
+ If the local-part starts with "pager.", then the message sent to the
+ radio pager consists of the body of the message; otherwise, if the
+ local-part starts with "pager-alpha.", then the radio paging server
+ determines which information in the headers and body of the message
+ are used when constructing the paging message. For example, some
+ radio paging servers might choose to examine the "To" and "Subject"
+ fields, in addition to the body, whilst other radio paging servers
+ might choose to simply send the body verbatim.
+
+3.2. Numeric Radio Pagers
+
+ If the local-part is the literal string "pager-numeric" then this
+ indicates that the recipient is using a numeric pager, and the radio
+ pager dials the telephone number corresponding to the domain-part.
+
+ The message sent to the radio pager consists of the body of the
+ message, which must consist solely of digits.
+
+3.3. MAILing versus SENDing
+
+ An SMTP client communicating with a radio paging server may use
+ attempt either the MAIL or SEND command. The radio paging 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+Rose [Page 4]
+
+RFC 1703 Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures October 1994
+
+
+ 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.
+
+3.4. 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 paging 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 paging network and is requiring
+ that the server reply code will carry a statement of success or
+ failure about that transmission.
+
+ 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 radio paging server will be able to submit
+ paging requests to the server directly, without additional SMTP-
+ relaying. That is, transmission from radio paging client to server
+ will be one "SMTP-hop"only. This will eliminate any possibility of
+ non-deterministic delay by the Internet itself.
+
+ The combination of configuring radio paging server and 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 paging network.
+
+4. Usage Examples
+
+ These examples make use of the "iddd.tpc.int" subdomain. The DNS
+ servers for this subdomain, upon encountering a domain of the form:
+
+ NUMBER.iddd.tpc.int
+
+
+
+
+Rose [Page 5]
+
+RFC 1703 Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures October 1994
+
+
+ automatically create a CNAME RR of the form:
+
+ R.E.B.M.U.N.iddd.tpc.int
+
+ e.g.,
+
+ 14159408776.iddd.tpc.int
+
+ will be treated as
+
+ 6.7.7.8.0.4.9.5.1.4.1.tpc.int
+
+4.1. A MIME Example
+
+ To: pager-alpha.98765@18005551234.iddd.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 sent to the radio paging network
+ having an IXO access telephone number of "+1-8005551234"
+ to the radio pager having a PIN of "98765".
+
+4.2. A Non-MIME Example
+
+ To: pager-numeric@14159408776.iddd.tpc.int
+ 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
+
+5. Server Configuration Example
+
+ A hypothetical radio paging carrier, e.g.,
+
+ Pigeon Paging
+
+ might choose to integrate its radio paging services with Internet e-
+ mail in the following fashion:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Rose [Page 6]
+
+RFC 1703 Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures October 1994
+
+
+ (1) The radio paging carrier establishes a top-level domain name,
+ e.g.,
+
+ pigeon.net
+
+ (2) The radio paging carrier installs and operates one or more
+ radio paging servers, each having a unique entry in the DNS,
+ e.g.,
+
+ ixo1.pigeon.net. IN A a.b.c.d
+
+ Each of these radio paging servers runs an SMTP server which
+ implements the SEND command as described in Section 3.3 above.
+
+ (3) The radio paging carrier coordinates with the administrators of
+ the TPC.INT subdomain to have the appropriate MX records added
+ to the DNS, assigning cost values in the MX records to reflect
+ any difference in the quality of service between the radio
+ paging servers, e.g.,
+
+ 4.3.2.1.5.5.5.0.0.8.1.tpc.int. IN MX 5 ixo1.pigeon.net.
+ 4.3.2.1.5.5.5.0.0.8.1.tpc.int. IN MX 5 ixo2.pigeon.net.
+
+ which would provide both load-balancing and redundancy
+ (particularly if the servers were located at different points in
+ the Internet). At this point, messages can be sent using the
+ addressing formats described in Section 2.2 above.
+
+ (4) The radio paging carrier may choose to make available a client
+ program which uses the SMTP SEND command, in order to achieve
+ "real-time" delivery of messages into the radio paging network.
+
+ (5) Finally, the radio paging carry may choose to assign each of its
+ customers a mailbox, e.g.,
+
+ mrose@pager.pigeon.net
+
+ which maps to the TPC.INT address for the customer's radio pager.
+
+ The system(s) listed in the DNS for this domain would maintain
+ the appropriate mail aliases for this mapping, e.g.,
+
+ R: 220 pager.pigeon.net SMTP ready
+ S: HELO malamud.com
+ R: 220 pager.pigeon.net
+ S: EXPN mrose
+ R: 250 <pager-alpha.98765@18005551234.iddd.tpc.int>
+
+
+
+
+Rose [Page 7]
+
+RFC 1703 Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures October 1994
+
+
+ At the carrier's discretion, these systems may also be the
+ systems running the radio paging servers. However, this needn't
+ be the case. For example, consider a situation where a client
+ program which uses the SMTP SEND command, wants to ensure that it
+ is talking to radio paging server for an address: e.g.,
+
+ R: 220 pager.pigeon.net SMTP ready
+ S: EHLO malamud.com
+ R: 220-pager.pigeon.net
+ R: 220 SEND
+ S: VRFY mrose
+ R: 551 User not local;
+ try <pager-alpha.98765@18005551234.iddd.tpc.int>
+
+ or
+
+ R: 220 pager.pigeon.net SMTP ready
+ S: EHLO malamud.com
+ R: 220-pager.pigeon.net
+ R: 220 SEND
+ S: VRFY mrose
+ R: 250 <pager-alpha.98765@18005551234.iddd.tpc.int>
+
+6. Security Considerations
+
+ Internet mail may be subject to monitoring by third parties, and in
+ particular, message relays.
+
+7. Acknowledgements
+
+ This document was motivated by RFC 1568 [6] and RFC 1645 [7]. In
+ addition, David Crocker, Carl Malamud, and Perry Metzger also
+ provided substantive comments.
+
+8. 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", BBN
+ Laboratories, STD 14, RFC 974, BBN, January 1986.
+
+ [3] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names -- Concepts and Facilities", STD
+ 13, RFC 1034, USC/Information Sciences Institute, November 1987.
+
+ [4] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names -- Implementation and
+ Specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, USC/Information Sciences
+ Institute, November 1987.
+
+
+
+Rose [Page 8]
+
+RFC 1703 Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures October 1994
+
+
+ [5] Borenstein, N., and N. Freed, "MIME: Mechanisms for Specifying
+ and Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC 1521,
+ Bellcore, Innosoft, September 1993.
+
+ [6] Gwinn, A., "Simple Network Paging Protocol - Version 1(b)", RFC
+ 1568, Southern Methodist University, January 1994.
+
+ [7] Gwinn, A., "Simple Network Paging Protocol - Version 2", RFC
+ 1645, Southern Methodist University, July 1994.
+
+9. 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
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+Rose [Page 9]
+