RE: Email messages: How large is too large?

[Richard Shockey <rshockey at ix.netcom.com>]

> What about an SMTP server negotiating a size limit based on a profile for
> the mailbox of the recipient?

This is one of the tasks of the RESCAP WG now officially chartered.


> Or perhaps a hold and verify, so the
> recipient is notified of the document, it's size, who sent it, and at what
> time, and then the recipient could send an ACK or a FIN for immediate
> delivery or immediate bounce BEFORE it travels to the recipient's mailbox.

I'm also beginning some work in the IETF called QUALDOCS which may have 
some bearing on these ideas. IESG has just informed me that they view the 
charter in a positive light with some revisions and a initial focus on a 
Goals and Requirements charter vs protocol development.

Proposed Charter:

QUALDOCS - HIGH QUALITY DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION

Chair(s):   Richard Shockey
        <rshockey at ix.netcom.com>  [PROPOSED]

Applications Area Director(s):
        Keith Moore     <moore+iesg at cs.utk.edu>
        Patrik Faltstrom   <paf at swip.net>

 Area Advisor
        Keith Moore  <moore+iesg at cs.utk.edu>

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Description of Working Group:

The transmission and reception of final form documents (i.e. presented in a 
format that describes their final rendering) is an essential global 
communications service.

Several protocols and services have been developed over the years to 
facilitate document transmission, including the GSTN Fax service [ITU 
-T.30].  Within the IETF several protocols have been developed that 
facilitate document transmission, including RFC 2305 and RFC 2532 [Store 
and Forward Internet Fax] and the Internet Print Protocol [IPP].

Problem Statement:

Each of these services has one or more severe limitations or restrictions 
that may not be suitable for all document transmissions.

Among those limitations that could be applied to one or more of the above 
services:

1. Limitations on Quality (resolution or color transmission)
2. Ability to repudiate request for receipt confirmation (MDN - DSN)
3. Lack of clear and unambiguous legal identification of sender and recipient
4. Lack of ability to adequately determine the success or failure of a 
document transmission during processing
5. Inability to establish reliable knowledge or negotiation of recipient 
capabilities
6. Inability to satisfy legal as well as general custom and practice for 
document transmission technologies, as typically applied to GSTN Fax.
7. Inability to establish transaction security, authenticity and 
confidentiality of document transmission

Work Group Objectives:

The purpose of the work group will be to investigate current work within 
the IETF and identify protocols, procedures and policies that can satisfy 
the requirements for reliable document transmission with a high degree of 
fidelity and reliability.

Essential attributes for Quality Document Delivery Services include:

Timely Delivery.
Transaction Security, Authenticity and Confidentiality.
High quality output with sender control of presentation detail
Legal identity exchange.
Document format selection based on confirmed capabilities of sender and/or 
receiver.
Proof of Delivery (Receipt Notification).

Study will be given to the requirements of 3rd party document delivery 
service providers.

The WG will not submit any new protocols only extensions or augmentations 
to existing or proposed Standards Track protocols.

Proposed solutions:

Proposed solutions should not impose undue burdens on implementers in order 
that the protocol should be available on a wide variety of devices and systems.

The working group will closely coordinate its activities with other IETF 
Work Groups, including the Internet Print Protocol working group [IPP] and 
the Internet Fax working group [FAX] as well other document transmission 
related standards bodies and related work groups, notably the ITU-T Study 
Group 8. The group will take note of other areas and Work Groups within the 
IETF that may have direct bearing on reliable document delivery.

Relevant areas include:

-  Security, Authentication and Encryption (TLS, etc)
-  Sender Identification (vCard)
-  RFC 2301 File Formats
-  Digital Signatures and Certificates
-  RESCAP
-  IMPP
-  ENUM


Particular emphasis will be taken to design protocol elements that would 
likely reduce the possibility of document "spaming" as well as other forms 
of denial and abuse of service.



Goals and Milestones:

April 2000  Submit Internet Draft of Goals and Objectives for Quality 
Document Distribution  for publication as a Standards Track RFC.

June 2000 Submit Internet Draft for QUALDOCS service for publication as a 
Standards Track RFC ( Based on Selected Protocols)

August 2000 Submit Internet Draft of Requirements for QUALDOCS Service 
Interworking for publication as a Informational RFC

October 2000 Close QUALDOCS WG.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Richard Shockey
Shockey Consulting LLC
8045 Big Bend Blvd. Suite 110
St. Louis, MO 63119
Voice 314.918.9020
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