Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

2417.0. "Store and Forward Mailbox system" by IJSAPL::VANWOLFEREN (Ron van Wolferen, EIS, Holland) Mon Mar 15 1993 16:33

Hello collegue(s),



For a big dutch bank we are currently in hard competition with Tandem for
the delivery of a Store and Forward messaging system for hunderds of concurrent
users.

The message flow which is predefined and only between bank and customer, is as 
follows:


1) A corporate client makes a file on a personal computer (MS/DOS)
   This file contains payments of different types (domestic, international
   and urgent payments).
   Before transmission of the file security operations like hashing are being
   performed over the entire file.

2) The file is being transferred from the PC-environment to the VAX-environment,
   making use of a file transfer protocol an top of X.25. These file transfer 
   protocols are Kermit, X- and Y-modem. 

3) On the VAX the file will be stored in a 'mailbox' .
   Before further processing in the VAX security functions will be performed,
   again on the entire file. 

   Data ready in the mailbox on the VAX will be transferred from the VAX to the 
   PC. Before transferring the data from the VAX to the PC security functions 
   will be performed as well. This data is received from the IBM-environment.

4) The data sent to the VAX resides in a physical file, which is a logical
   mailbox. The received data in the mailbox will be read from the incoming
   mailbox file and stored in specific mailboxes for domestic, international and 
   urgent transactions. These specific mailboxes are physical files and will be 
   transferred to the IBM-environment via SNA/DTF.


My questions are:


1) Do you recognize this kind of a Store and Forward mailbox system?


2) Do you see the usage of software tools or products in your environment?


3) How would you solve this problem with (standard) Digital software? 


4) Do you have reference sites for such a system?



I appreciate your response,




Ron van Wolferen

DTN: 838 3210

IJSAPL::VANWOLFEREN
       or 
Ron van Wolferen @ UTO