Internet Mail Architecture

Over its thirty-five year history Internet Mail has undergone significant changes in scale and complexity, as it has become a global infrastructure service. The first standardized architecture for networked email specified little more than a simple split between the user world and the transmission world. Core aspects of the service, such as the styles of mailbox address and basic message format, have remained remarkably constant. However today's Internet Mail is marked by many independent operators, many different components for providing service to users and many others for performing message transfer. Public discussion of the service often lacks common terminology and a common frame of reference for these components and their activities. Having a common reference model and terminology makes a basic difference when talking about problems with the service, changes in policy, or enhancement to the service's functionality. This document offers an enhanced Internet Mail architecture that targets description of the existing service, in order to facilitate clearer and more efficient technical, operations and policy discussions about email.

[1]  G. Klyne,et al.  This document defines the initial IANA registration for permanent mail and MIME message header fields, per RFC 3864. , 2005 .

[2]  Tim Showalter,et al.  Sieve: A Mail Filtering Language , 2001, RFC.

[3]  Blake Ramsdell,et al.  Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) Version 3.1 Message Specification , 2004, RFC.

[4]  Marshall T. Rose,et al.  Post Office Protocol: Version 3 , 1988, RFC.

[5]  Marshall T. Rose,et al.  Post Office Protocol - Version 3 , 1996, RFC.

[6]  Keith Moore,et al.  An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications , 1994 .

[7]  Ned Freed,et al.  The Batch SMTP Media Type , 1998, RFC.

[8]  Ned Freed,et al.  Media Type Specifications and Registration Procedures , 2005, RFC.

[9]  John C. Klensin,et al.  Simple Mail Transfer Protocol , 2001, RFC.

[10]  Paul V. Mockapetris,et al.  Domain names - concepts and facilities , 1987, RFC.

[11]  D. Austin Henderson,et al.  Standard for the format of ARPA network text messages , 1977, RFC.

[12]  Keith Moore,et al.  Recommendations for Automatic Responses to Electronic Mail , 2004, RFC.

[13]  Abel Yang,et al.  Internationalized Email Headers , 2008, RFC.

[14]  Eric Allman,et al.  SMTP Service Extension for Message Tracking , 2004, RFC.

[15]  Paul E. Hoffman,et al.  SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over Transport Layer Security , 2002, RFC.

[16]  Scott O. Bradner,et al.  Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels , 1997, RFC.

[17]  Wei Mao,et al.  SMTP Extension for Internationalized Email Addresses , 2008, RFC.

[18]  David Shaw,et al.  OpenPGP Message Format , 1998, RFC.

[19]  Ravinder Chandhok,et al.  List-Id: A Structured Field and Namespace for the Identification of Mailing Lists , 2001, RFC.

[20]  Grant Neufeld,et al.  The Use of URLs as Meta-Syntax for Core Mail List Commands and their Transport through Message Header Fields , 1998, RFC.

[21]  Glenn W. Parsons,et al.  Voice Profile for Internet Mail - version 2 (VPIMv2) , 2004, RFC.

[22]  Randall Gellens,et al.  Message Submission for Mail , 2006, RFC.

[23]  John C. Klensin,et al.  A Registry for SMTP Enhanced Mail System Status Codes , 2008, RFC.

[24]  Keith Moore.  MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text , 1996, RFC.

[25]  Jeffrey C. Mogul,et al.  Registration Procedures for Message Header Fields , 2004, RFC.

[26]  Jack De Winter,et al.  SMTP Service Extension for Remote Message Queue Starting , 1996, RFC.

[27]  Gregory M. Vaudreuil.  The Multipart/Report Content Type for the Reporting of Mail System Administrative Messages , 2003, RFC.

[28]  Dave Crocker,et al.  Facsimile Using Internet Mail (IFAX) Service of ENUM , 2005, RFC.

[29]  Jon Postel,et al.  Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Four: Registration Procedures , 1996, RFC.

[30]  John G. Myers,et al.  Local Mail Transfer Protocol , 1996, RFC.

[31]  Jon Postel,et al.  Internet Protocol , 1981, RFC.

[32]  Dave Crocker,et al.  MIME Encapsulation of EDI Objects , 1995, RFC.

[33]  Claudio Allocchio.  Minimal FAX address format in Internet Mail , 2001, RFC.

[34]  Glenn W. Parsons,et al.  Voice Profile for Internet Mail - version 2 , 1998, RFC.

[35]  Claudio Allocchio,et al.  Minimal PSTN address format in Internet Mail , 1998, RFC.

[36]  Randall Gellens,et al.  On-Demand Mail Relay (ODMR) SMTP with Dynamic IP Addresses , 1999, RFC.

[37]  D. H. Crocker,et al.  Standard for the format of arpa intemet text messages , 1982 .

[38]  Randy Bush,et al.  Clarifications to the DNS Specification , 1997, RFC.

[39]  Nathaniel S. Borenstein,et al.  Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Five: Conformance Criteria and Examples , 1996, RFC.

[40]  Gregory M. Vaudreuil,et al.  Enhanced Mail System Status Codes , 1996, RFC.

[41]  Keith Moore,et al.  Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Service Extension for Delivery Status Notifications (DSNs) , 2003, RFC.

[42]  Graham Klyne,et al.  Content Negotiation for Messaging Services based on Email , 2002, RFC.

[43]  Paul Vixie,et al.  A DNS RR for specifying the location of services (DNS SRV) , 1996, RFC.

[44]  Graham Klyne,et al.  Message Context for Internet Mail , 2003, RFC.

[45]  Marshall T. Rose,et al.  SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport , 1993, RFC.

[46]  Mark R. Crispin.  Internet Message Access Protocol - Version 4rev1 , 1996, RFC.

[47]  Randall Gellens,et al.  Mapping Between the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Internet Mail , 2006, RFC.

[48]  Dave Crocker,et al.  Mailbox Names for Common Services, Roles and Functions , 1997, RFC.

[49]  Jeroen Houttuin.  A Tutorial on Gatewaying between X.400 and Internet Mail , 1993, RFC.

[50]  Cyrus Daboo.  SIEVE Email Filtering: Spamtest and VirusTest Extensions , 2004, RFC.

[51]  Mark R. Crispin.  Distributed Electronic Mail Models in IMAP4 , 1994, RFC.

[52]  Stéphane H. Maes,et al.  Internet Email to Support Diverse Service Environments (Lemonade) Profile , 2006, RFC.

[53]  John G. Myers.  SMTP Service Extension for Authentication , 1999, RFC.

[54]  David Clark,et al.  Tussle in cyberspace: defining tomorrow's internet , 2002, SIGCOMM 2002.

[55]  Eric Allman,et al.  Email Submission Operations: Access and Accountability Requirements , 2007, RFC.

[56]  Ned Freed,et al.  Gateways and MIME Security Multiparts , 1999, RFC.

[57]  Peter W. Resnick,et al.  Internet Message Format , 2001, RFC.

[58]  Graham Klyne,et al.  Full-mode Fax Profile for Internet Mail (FFPIM) , 2005, RFC.

[59]  Randall Gellens,et al.  Message Submission , 1998, RFC.

[60]  Glenn W. Parsons,et al.  VPIM Voice Message MIME Sub-type Registration , 1998, RFC.

[61]  Nathaniel S. Borenstein,et al.  Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies , 1996, RFC.

[62]  Paul V. Mockapetris,et al.  Domain names - implementation and specification , 1987, RFC.

[63]  Gunnar Lindberg,et al.  Anti-Spam Recommendations for SMTP MTAs , 1999, RFC.

[64]  Jacob Palme,et al.  Registration of Mail and MIME Header Fields , 2005, RFC.

[65]  Nathaniel S. Borenstein,et al.  Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types , 1996, RFC.