Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ncis.tis.llnl.gov!mars.emse.fr!pays
From: pays@mars.emse.fr (Paul-Andre Pays)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400
Subject: Re:  Will EasyLink Support X.400?
Message-ID: <9001161839.AA04478@mars.emse.fr>
Date: 16 Jan 90 18:39:34 GMT
Sender: root@ncis.tis.llnl.gov
Distribution: inet
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 91
Approved: post-x400@tis.llnl.gov

>
> I have a question that I hope will arouse some discussion in this rather
> sleepy group :^)
Sure, it will!

> Does anyone know if and how soon the major E-mail networks might become
> X.400 compliant?  How much would this impact existing operations?  Will
> it be possible to retain existing user interfaces?  On the other hand,
> isn't it advantageous for them to go to the increased services of X.400
> as soon as possible?  Or is there not enough market demand?
I don't know exactly the situation in the US, but may give you a hint
about Europe.
  1. The RARE (Reseaux Associes de la Recherche Europeene) initiative
  through the RARE MHS program has set up and is running a X.400 mail
  network accross 19 countries in Europe. It now includes more than
  400 nodes using X.400.
     Moreover EUnet (the european branch of UUnet, more than 700 nodes)
  which is now using RFC-822 smtp is actively planning its migration
  towards OSI (including X.400 MOTIS). The plan is twofold: change
  network tu use and provide ISO underlying service, change News and
  Mail application to the ISO equivalent.
	Last, EARN (the european branch of bitnet) has also shown its
  willingness to move toward ISO, X.400. nevertheless the deadline has
  not been fixed and it is expected to last for a rather long period
  of time. The only short term goal is to replace the IBM transport
  level protocols by their ISO counterpart (X25 based).

  products are available for nearly all Unix boxes, for most big
  manufacturers propietary OS, for OS2/DOS PC Lans.
  Public domain products are available at least for research and
  education (ISODE PP, INRIA MPLUS,...)
  A few leading edge small/medium sized software houses have jumped
  over the bandwagon are have the products and skills to provide
  customized applications and a sound service (such as MARBEN, SYNC,
  in France or Coconet in germany, and many others).
  Many big companies and/or public administration have just started or
  are really close to make the step.
  The situation is now really RIPE.

  2. new or existing mailers (UA)?
  This is up to the end user, and the situation is moving fast.
  Up to now X.400 UAs were rather poor in term of user friendliness
  compared to MH, mailtool, XMH, ELM,... Moreover, we have a few nice
  RFC-987 compliant gateway products enabling to talk X.400 while still
  using existing RFC-822 mailers (UAs).
  This year many X.400 providers are delivering nice, window based
  user interface to real X.400 mail. Public services in several
  countries are running smooth, with software available for various
  systems to use them. The demand is increasing very fast, so I
  personaly believe that the shift will occur sooner than generally
  expected.
  Once you have a sound user interface will you appreciate to lack the
  niceties of X.400 such as nice reporting mechanism, multi part
  contents, ability to "carry" multimedia messages...?

>
> In particular I am interested in EasyLink, which I use in my work.  An
> organization I am involved with uses EasyLink, and we are wondering about
> what to look forward to as we increase our international E-mail usage.
Sorry no knowledge of this one...
>
> Actually, right now I am a new Master's level student, and am starting to
> look around for a thesis topic related to X.400. I realize the above
> questions aren't on the level of Master's research...yet.  But as I get
> into the area, I am looking forward to some worthwhile discussions in
> this group!
Several students in my research group presented Thesis about or around
X.400. Eg now one is working on the distributed administration of a
X.400 based mail network (including RFC-822 gateways), another one
on X.400 use for multimedia messages (including voice).
I would suggest not to take X.400 as such as a topic, nor to stay too
close to existing X.400 but to develop about new applications in the
family; eg. I also directed one thesis about the use of X.400 for
file transfer, and one about a distributed conferencing system based
on X.400. Another aspect with a lot of potential for research is the
X.500 directory services combined with various message based
application, especially in the field of CSCW (aka groupware), for which
we are also putting some research effort.
Other aspects include new applications such EDI, EFT. Much of them
require a high level of security, and this is also in my mind a nice
topic for research for which we have a couple of ideas and plans
I really bet you find your (put here the word or expression you
prefer; i would say "tasse de the") in the area.
Many research teams in leading research institutons such as INRIA in
France, GMD in germany, UCL and Nottingham in the UK are doing a
really nice work in the area too.


-- PAP
X.400: C=FR; ADMD=ATLAS; PRMD=emse; S=pays
internet: pays@emse.fr