Message-handling systems based on the CCITT X.400 recommendations

Message-handling systems allow the exchange of electronic mail between computers. The International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) has proposed a standard for message-handling systems in the form of the X.400 series of recommendations that has been widely recognized by computer manufacturers and communications carriers. This paper provides a tutorial on the X.400 recommendations and then describes two prototypes developed by the IBM European Networking Center in Heidelberg, Germany, in cooperation with its research partners. The prototypes were demonstrated together with X.400 prototypes from other manufacturers at the CeBIT 86 trade fair in Hannover, Germany.