rfc1865.txt

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RFC 1865                 EDI Meets the Internet             January 1996


2. General Information

2.1.  What is the Internet ?

   It is the inter-working of existing corporate and government networks
   using commonly used telecommunications standards.  It is not a new
   physical network, although some new facilities may be needed.
   Rather, it is based on mutual interests of users to communicate more
   effectively via electronic message and file transfers.  Internet
   communications may be interpersonal (person-to-person) E-Mail or
   process-to-process like EDI.  Messages may be inquiries to shared
   databases and responses. Messages may be entire files.

2.2.  Is there a difference between EDI and electronic commerce (EC) ?

   Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is defined as the inter-process
   (computer application to computer application) communication of
   business information in a standardized electronic form.  Electronic
   Commerce includes EDI, but recognizes the need for inter-personal
   (human to human) communications, the transfer of moneys, and the
   sharing of common data bases as additional activities that aid in the
   efficient conduct of business.  By incorporating a wide range of
   technologies, EC is much broader than EDI.  However, the focus of
   this document in on EDI, not electronic commerce.

2.3.  What makes the Internet useful for EDI ?

   The greatest benefits will derive from:

      o  Adoption of common standards and proven inter-operable systems,

      o  Adoption and deployment of a distributed Directory Service
         capability, so that one can readily contact electronically any
         other organization in the world.

      o  Explicit commitment by participating organizations to
         cooperatively route traffic, work to resolve addresses, and
         meet required standards.

      o  Ubiquitous network coverage from many service providers. This
         allows the customer to choose the level of service needed.

      o  Layering of applications (such as EDI) over existing, proven,
         applications.

      o  A standards process with reference implementations which
         all vendors have equal access.  (a.k.a. a level playing field).




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RFC 1865                 EDI Meets the Internet             January 1996


      o  Widely available public domain software including but not
         limited to applications, protocol/transports and multiple
         platform development tools.

2.4.  Does this means we will now have to coordinate our EC/EDI
      activities with the Internet?

   The Internet is not an organization or government agency.  You use
   the Internet to do business like you would use the telephone.  The
   same Internet connection your organization uses to send electronic
   mail would be the one you use to send EDI transactions.  Software
   developers write EDI translators, packages or templates for your e-
   mail system so that you can handle your own EDI transactions.  Your
   EDI activities do not need to be coordinated, but your connection to
   the Internet does.

2.5.  How do I find the addresses of other Trading partners on the
      Internet if I don't have to coordinate my EDI activities with
      a central organization or VAN?

   The Internet works by assigning names or "domains" to
   networks/companies/machines.  This is called the Domain Name Service
   (DNS). It works from a distributed tree structure.  The Internet
   requires registration of your Internet Protocol (IP) address and
   Domain Name in the Domain Name Service (DNS).  Your internet service
   provider can do this for you or assist you in contacting the right
   people to get your assigned addresses and domain names.

2.6.  How fast is the Internet?

   For a modest amount of data with a dedicated connection, a message
   transmission would occur in a matter of seconds, unless the ISP
   selected one of the trading partners is overloaded.  The maximum
   delay over the internet backbones is at most a few seconds.  Like the
   interstate highway system, speed depends on how close you and your
   trading partner are to Internet backbones.  Unfortunately, some areas
   may lack the capacity or "bandwidth" to handle the workload your
   organization requires.  Contact your local Internet Service Provider
   for details on service in your area.  Also, the more you are willing
   to spend, the better the service.  The Internet is inexpensive, but
   (contrary to popular mythology) it is not free.

2.7.  What about reliability of the Internet?

   For high reliability mission critical applications, redundant ISPs
   may be used (with separate backbones), and redundant mail servers at
   separate locations can be used. A single internet email or server
   address can be used to transparently route to any of the redundant



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RFC 1865                 EDI Meets the Internet             January 1996


   servers or network connections.

   If a dedicated Internet connection is used to transmit information,
   e.g., via SMTP (see questions 3.2 and 3.5), then the message is
   delivered directly to the trading partner's system and delivery is
   assured. If a part time store and forward connection is used, then
   the integrity of the message depends on the ISP or other computers
   used in the forwarding of a message.

2.8.  What are RFCs and where can I get them ?

   RFC stands for Request For Comments.  The RFC series of notes covers
   a broad range of topics related to computer communications.  The core
   topics are the Internet and the TCP/IP protocol suite.  There are
   three categories of RFCs today, Standards Track, Informational, or
   Experimental.  Many of the RFCs describe de-facto standards in the
   Internet Community.  Copies of RFCs are often posted to the USENET
   newsgroup comp.doc and obtainable from archive sites such as
   ds.internic.net.

                        ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/

2.9.  Where can I get general information about the Internet?

   Your local bookstore probably has one of the many recent introductory
   publications on the Internet.  In addition, look for (or have someone
   get you) the following bibliographies for free:

         RFC 1175
             Bowers, K., LaQuey, T., Reynolds, J., Roubicek, K.,
             Stahl, M., and A. Yuan, "FYI on Where to Start -
             A Bibliography of Internetworking Information",
             08/16/1990 (FYI 3)

                    ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1175.txt

         RFC 1463
             Hoffman, E., and L. Jackson, "FYI on Introducing the
             Internet -- A Short Bibliography of Introductory
             Internetworking Readings for the Network Novice",
             05/27/93 (FYI 19)

                    ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1463.txt

   The reader may want to look at the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
   document for the newsgroup alt.internet.services.  This FAQ, as well
   as all Usenet FAQs, can be retrieved via ftp from rtfm.mit.edu in the
   directory /pub/usenet/news.answers.  These FAQs are also available



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RFC 1865                 EDI Meets the Internet             January 1996


   from ftp.sterling.com in the directory /usenet/news.answers.

3. Getting Connected To The Internet

3.1.  What do I need to get to use the Internet?

   You need to know your existing telecommunications connectivity,
   address resolution, and routing capabilities.  Then you need to
   establish and operate an Electronic Mail gateway and/or other
   application gateway, e.g., for the file transfer protocol (FTP).
   Larger organizations may supply their trading partners with the
   TCP/IP software and X12 translator interfaced to E-mail or FTP.

3.2.  What software is used to support electronic mail?

   a) Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Servers

      A dedicated internet connection usually uses SMTP software to send
      and receive messages. The SMTP server may transfer messages to the
      "spool" area for incoming email in the file system, may queue the
      messages for transmission via UUCP, may hold mail in a POP server,
      or may transfer the message to a proprietary email system.

   b) Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) Servers

      A UUCP server is used to transfer messages when a store and
      forward is used, either between machines within a WAN, or to
      another machine with a dialup link.

   c) Post Office Protocol (POP) mail Servers

      A POP server holds email which can later be retrieved by a client
      application run by the user, typically on a PC which might not be
      running 24 hours a day.  The TCP/IP protocol is used either over a
      LAN or dialup SLIP connection to retrieve messages.

   d) Mail User Agents (Mail Readers)

      Uses or applications employ client programs to retrieve and
      display email messages from the file system mail spool area, or
      from another server computer using POP or some other proprietary
      protocol (e.g. Microsoft-Mail). This mail user agent (UA) software
      is also used to compose and send email via a POP server or system
      email.

      The mail user agent may also process attached files using a
      proprietary format within a mail message, using one of the common
      de-facto standards, or using the Multipurpose Internet Mail



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RFC 1865                 EDI Meets the Internet             January 1996


      Extensions (MIME) internet standard.  Among other things, MIME
      permits the identification and concatenation of message parts
      (called "body parts") into a single message that can traverse the
      Internet using the SMTP protocol.  The Work in Progress, "EDI in
      MIME"  provides the necessary standards for MIME compliant user
      agents to identify EDI body parts.  A MIME compliant mail reader
      can process the contents of the messages and dispatch data to
      external software. For example, files can be dragged to file
      system directories, images can be displayed, and audio data can be
      played.  In the case of EDI, a message formatted according to the
      MIME-EDI specification could be automatically transferred to an
      EDI processing program.

   e) Automated Mail Processing

      A typical Mail User Agents is an interactive application. However
      there are automated email message processing programs which can
      sort incoming mail, process forms returned by others, or in the
      case of EDI data, transfer the message contents to the EDI system.
      Messages formatted according to the MIME EDI specification can be
      properly recognized by any MIME compliant mail processing program.

3.3.  What types of client-server or server-server protocols exist on
      the Internet?

   Internet email is typically used for two party messaging. The FTP,
   gopher, and HTTP protocols allow many users, possibly anonymous, to
   retrieve data from a central source. For example, corporate catalogs
   can be restricted by potential customers.

   a) File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

      Companies with existing connectivity to the Internet may use FTP
      to transfer files to one-another or to their VAN.  This solution
      employs the same TCP/IP used for SMTP.  Furthermore, Internet
      documents such as EDI in MIME Work in Progress are available via
      FTP on the FTP server "ds.internic.net."

   b) gopher service protocol.

      Gopher service is a way of organizing selected documents and files
      on an Internet server in a simple tree menu, so that users on
      other Internet computers can find them easily.  Most gopher menus
      are also linked to other gopher menus elsewhere, so that users can
      easily jump from one Internet server to another.  There are
      thousands of gopher servers in operation worldwide.