TRANSFER Installation and Management Guide

3 The X400 Gateway
068837, Update 1 to 013198 Tandem Computers Incorporated 3–1
Overview The TRANSFER X400 gateway allows TRANSFER correspondents to exchange
messages with users of different message systems that are based on international X.400
standards. With the gateway, the format of a TRANSFER message is translated into a
format defined by the recommendations for X.400 message handling systems.
X.400 has its own architecture and protocols, but TRANSFER correspondents need not
understand these as long as they know how to address X400 correspondents. They
create, submit, and receive X400 packages exactly as they do standard TRANSFER
packages. When they specify a valid X400 recipient, TRANSFER automatically
forwards a package to the X400 gateway.
In the TRANSFER manuals, the term X.400—with the period—refers to the X.400
standards. X400—without the period—is the TRANSFER implementation of those
standards. Thus, X.400 defines an international standard of architecture and protocols.
TRANSFER sends X400 messages to X400 recipients through the X400 gateway.
TRANSFER has X400 servers and configures an X400 depot at X400 nodes.
X400 Messages Like TRANSFER packages, X400 messages can be submitted by a person or by an
application. They can be mail or nonmail packages, and they can contain either text or
data.
P1 Messages—General
Message Handling
The X.400 architecture uses a protocol called P1 to format and route messages through
the X400 network.
A P1 message consists of an envelope and its content. The envelope contains delivery
information including recipient names and addresses, priority, and other service
elements, such as notification of delivery and sensitivity level—personal, private,
company-confidential, or none. The content is the actual information that is to be
delivered to the recipient.
The combination of an envelope and its content is functionally equivalent to a
TRANSFER package.
If you submit a package with an X400 recipient, the X400 gateway generates a P1
message for your package.