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Email

The document discusses the architecture and components of electronic mail systems. It describes four scenarios of increasing complexity for how email is exchanged. The key components that enable email are user agents to interface with users, message transfer agents using SMTP to transfer messages between servers, and message access agents using a pull protocol for users to retrieve messages from servers. MIME extensions allow non-ASCII content to be encoded and transmitted over email.

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Aakash Sharma
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24 views43 pages

Email

The document discusses the architecture and components of electronic mail systems. It describes four scenarios of increasing complexity for how email is exchanged. The key components that enable email are user agents to interface with users, message transfer agents using SMTP to transfer messages between servers, and message access agents using a pull protocol for users to retrieve messages from servers. MIME extensions allow non-ASCII content to be encoded and transmitted over email.

Uploaded by

Aakash Sharma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Electronic Mail:

SMTP, MIME

1
E-Mail
 It is a digital mechanism for exchanging
messages through internet or intranet
communication platforms.
 E-mail systems are based on store and
forward model in which e-mail server
systems accept , forward and store
messages on behalf of users ,who only
need to connect to the email
infrastructure.
2
1 ARCHITECTURE

To explain the architecture of e-mail, we give four


scenarios.
We begin with the simplest situation and add
complexity as we proceed.
The fourth scenario is the most common in the
exchange of e-mail.

3
 First Scenario
 Second Scenario
 Third Scenario
 Fourth Scenario

4
2 USER AGENT

The first component of an electronic mail system is the


user agent (UA).
It provides service to the user to make the process of
sending and receiving a message easier.

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Example:

Intranet Mail Server-Exchange of mail


between the employees of an organization.

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Note

When the sender and the receiver of an


e-mail are on the same mail server,
we need only two user agents.

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10
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Figure 2 Second scenario

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1

2 3 4

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Note

When the sender and the receiver of an


e-mail are on different mail servers,
we need two UAs and a pair of MTAs
(client and server).

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Figure 3 Third scenario

3
7

5
4 6

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Note

When the sender is connected to the


mail server via a LAN or a WAN, we
need two UAs and two pairs of MTAs
(client and server).

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Figure 4 Fourth scenario

1 9

2
8

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4 6

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Note

When both sender and receiver are


connected to the mail server via a LAN
or a WAN, we need two UAs, two pairs
of MTAs (client and server), and a pair of
MAAs (client and server). This is the
most common situation today.

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Figure 5 Push versus pull

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Figure 6 Format of an email

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Figure 7 E-mail address

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3 MESSAGE TRANSFER AGENT
The actual mail transfer is done through message transfer agents
(MTAs).
To send mail, a system must have the client MTA, and to receive
mail, a system must have a server MTA.

The formal protocol that defines the MTA client and server in
the Internet is called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

As we said before, two pairs of MTA client-server programs are


used in the most common situation (fourth scenario). Figure
shows the range of the SMTP protocol in this scenario.

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Figure 8 SMTP range

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SMTP is used 2 times
 Between the sender and the sender’s mail
server.
 Between the sender’s mail server and the
receiver’s mail server.

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Figure 9 Commands and responses

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Figure 10 Connection establishment

220 service ready 1


2 HELO: deanza.edu

250 OK 3

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Figure 11 Message transfer

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Figure 12 Connection termination

1 QUIT

221 service closed 2

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4 MESSAGE ACCESS AGENT

The first and the second stages of mail delivery use SMTP.
However, SMTP is not involved in the third stage because SMTP
is a push protocol; it pushes the message from the client to the
server.

In other words, the direction of the bulk data (messages) is from


the client to the server.

On the other hand, the third stage needs a pull protocol; the
client must pull messages from the server.

The direction of the bulk data are from the server to the client.

The third stage uses a message access agent. 37


5 MIME

Electronic mail has a simple structure. Its simplicity,


however, comes with a price. It can send messages only in
NVT 7-bit ASCII format. In other words, it has some
limitations. Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
(MIME) is a supplementary protocol that allows non-
ASCII data to be sent through e-mail. MIME transforms
non-ASCII data at the sender site to NVT ASCII data and
delivers it to the client MTA to be sent through the
Internet. The message at the receiving site is transformed
back to the original data.

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Figure 15 MIME

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MIME Header
 MIME Header added to the original Email
header section to define transformation
parameters.

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Figure 16 MIME header

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