NAMING AND DIRECTORY ISSUES IN MESSAGE TRANSFER SYSTEMS

Abstract : A message transfer system requires some means for users to determine the addresses of their correspondents. A Directory Service aids users in identifying a particular correspondent and the correspondent's address. This paper discusses the technical, economic, organizational and political requirements which must be satisfied by a directory service. The authors develop a language for describing alternative architectures for directory service borrowed from notions of hierarchical computer file system design. They propose a system of naming and directory services which meets the stated requirements based on names which specify a path through a sequence of directories. Finally, they compare our proposal to several alternative designs for directory service which have appeared in the literature. Additional keywords: electronic mail; message processing; information transfer. (Author)