





Internet Draft                                                 T. Hansen
draft-ietf-msgtrk-model-04.txt                         AT&T Laboratories
Valid for six months                                    November 6, 2001



                Message Tracking Model and Requirements

                    <draft-ietf-msgtrk-model-04.txt>

                         Authors' version: 1.14

     Status of this Memo

     This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
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Copyright Notice

     Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

     Customers buying enterprise message systems often ask: Can I track
the messages?  Message tracking is the ability to find out the path that
a particular message has taken through a messaging system and the
current routing status of that message.  This document provides a model



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of message tracking that can be used for understanding the Internet-wide
message infrastructure and to further enhance those capabilities to
include message tracking, as well as requirements for proposed message
tracking solutions.

1.  Problem Statement

     Consider sending a package through a package delivery company.
Once you've sent a package, you would like to be able to find out if the
package has been delivered or not, and if not, where that package
currently is and what its status is.  Note that the status of a package
may not include whether it was delivered to its addressee, but just the
destination.  Many package carriers provide such services today, often
via a web interface.

     Message tracking extends that capability to the Internet-wide mes-
sage infrastructure, analogous to the service provided by package car-
riers:  the ability to quickly locate where a message (package) is, and
to determine whether or not the message (package) has been delivered to
its final destination.  An Internet-standard approach will allow the
development of message tracking applications that can operate in a
multi-vendor messaging environment, and will encourage the operation of
the function across administrative boundaries.

     The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",  "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC-KEYWORDS].

2.  Definitions
The following terms are relevant to message tracking.  The terms Track-
ing User Agent and Tracking Server are new, while all other terms have
been collected here from other sources.

     Originating Mail User Agent (MUA)
               The originating mail user agent is the software used to
               compose and originate a message.  It is the software sit-
               ting on a person's desktop.

     Originating Mail Submission Agent (MSA)
               The Mail Submission Agent accepts a message from a User
               Agent, adds or modifies it as required for Internet stan-
               dards and/or site policy, and injects the message into
               the network.  The MSA may be the initial MTA or may hand
               off the message to an MTA.

     Message Transfer Agent (MTA)
               A Message Transfer Agent accepts a message and moves it
               forward towards its destination.  That destination may be



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               local or reached via another MTA.  It may use a local
               queue to store the message before transferring it
               further.  Any MTA may generate a Non-Delivery Notifica-
               tion.

     Intermediate Message Transfer Agent (MTA)
               An Intermediate MTA is an MTA that accepts a message for
               transfer somewhere else.

     Final Message Transfer Agent (MTA)
               A Final MTA is an MTA that accepts a message for local
               delivery.  It is the final place that a message is
               accepted.  The final MTA is what sends any Delivery
               Status Notificatons (DSNs).  (Intermediate MTA's may also
               send a DSN if it relays to a non-DSN aware MTA.)

     Foreign Message Transfer Agent
               A foreign MTA provides delivery of messages using other
               protocols than those specified for Internet mail, such as
               an X.400 mail system.

     Gateway Message Transfer Agent (GW-MTA)
               A gateway MTA accepts a message for transfer to a foreign
               MTA outside of the Internet protocol space.

     Local Delivery Agent (LDA)
               The local Delivery Agent delivers the message to the
               local message store.  (The MTA and LDA are often combined
               into the same program.)

     Delivery Status Notification (DSN)
               A Delivery Status Notification [RFC-DSN] is produced by
               an MTA when a message is unsuccessfully delivered, either
               to its next hop or the final message store, or when it is
               successfully delivered, either to a foreign MTA, to a
               local delivery agent, or a non-DSN aware MTA.  Positive
               notifications are only performed [RFC-ESMTP-DSN] when
               specifically requested.

     Non-Delivery Notification (NDN)
               A non-delivery notification is a special form of DSN
               indicating unsuccessful delivery.

     Message Disposition Notification (MDN)
               A Message Disposition Notification is used to report the
               disposition of a message after it has been successfully
               delivered to a recipient.




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     Tracking User Agent (TUA)
               A tracking user agent wants to find information on a mes-
               sage on the behalf of a user.  It is the requestor or
               initiator of such a request.  (The MUA and TUA could be
               combined into the same program.)

     Tracking Server
               A tracking server provides tracking information to a
               tracking client.  It is the repository of the information
               about a message for the traversal through a particular
               MTA.  (The tracking server and MTA may run on the same
               system.)

3.  Entities

     The entities involved in message tracking are:  message user
agents, message submission agents, message transfer agents, tracking
user agents and tracking servers.

4.  Requirements

     These are requirements that any message tracking solution must be
able to satisfy:

     The message tracking solution:

     **   MUST scale to the internet.

     **   MUST be easy to deploy.

     **   SHOULD maximize the reuse of existing, already deployed tech-
          nology and infrastructure.

     **   If possible, SHOULD extend existing protocols and not invent
          new ones.

     **   SHOULD have a low implementation cost.  (This makes it easy to
          incorporate into existing products.)

     **   MUST restrict tracking of a message to the originator of the
          message (or a delegate).

     **   MUST be able to do authentication.

     **   MAY allow an originator to delegate this responsibility to a
          third party.

     **   SHOULD have the property that they would allow per-message



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          delegation of the tracking responsibility.

     **   MUST require a tracking user agent to prove that they are per-
          mitted to request the tracking information.

     **   MUST be able to uniquely identify messages.

     **   MUST require every message to have unique identification.

5.  Interaction Models

     There are several models by which tracking of messages can be
enabled, by which messages can be tracked, and by which information can
be requested and gathered.

5.1.  Tracking Enabling Models

     Either the envelope or message header must contain enough informa-
tion to track a message and securely retrieve information about the mes-
sage.  Any message that does not have enough information to track it is
by definition not trackable.

     If there is not enough information available in current standard
envelopes or message headers, then the current standards will need to be
extended.  Either the MUA or MSA must determine the additional informa-
tion and enable the tracking by adding the additional information to
either the envelope or header.

     This leads to two tracking enabling models:  passive enabling and
active enabling.

5.1.1.  Passive Enabling Model
The "passive enabling" model assumes that there is sufficient informa-
tion available.  No UA or MSA interaction occurs to turn tracking on; it
is on by default.

5.1.2.  Active Enabling Model

     The "active  enabling" model requires that the MUA and MSA exchange
information when the message is submitted.  This exchange indicates that
logging of the message's traversal should be performed, as well as pro-
viding enough additional information to allow the message to be tracked.
This information will need to be passed on to subsequent MTAs as needed.

5.2.  Tracking Request Models
There are several models by which tracking information may be requested.





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5.2.1.  Passive Request Model

     The "passive request" model requires active enabling to indicate
that some form of tracking is to be performed.  The tracking information
can be sent back immediately (as a form of telemetry) or sent to a 3rd
party for later retrieval.

5.2.2.  Passive Request Tracking Information

     Forms of passive tracking information that could potentially be
requested are  as  follows.  Note that mechanisms already exist for
requesting the information marked with a (+).  The references for such
mechanisms are listed at the end of each such entry.

     **   send a DSN of a message arriving at an intermediate MTA

     **   (+) send a DSN of a message being rejected while at an inter-
          mediate MTA [RFC-DSN]

     **   (+) send a DSN of a message leaving an intermediate MTA and
          going to another MTA [RFC-DELIVER-BY]

     **   send a DSN of a message arriving at a final MTA

     **   (+) send a DSN of a message being rejected while at a final
          MTA [RFC-DSN]

     **   (+) send a DSN of a message being delivered to a user's mes-
          sage store [RFC-DSN]

     **   (+) send a DSN of a message being delivered to a foreign MTA
          [RFC-DSN]

     **   (+) send an MDN of a message being read by an end user [RFC-
          MDN]

5.3.  Active Request Model

     The "active request" model requires an active query by a user's
user agent to the MSA, intermediate MTAs and final MTA, or to a third
party, to find the message's status as known by that MTA.  Active
request will work with either passive enabling or active enabling.

5.3.1.  Server Chaining vs. Server Referrals
When a tracking server has been asked for tracking information, and the
message has been passed on to another MTA of which this tracking server
has no tracking knowledge, there are two modelling choices:




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     **   the first tracking server will contact the next tracking
          server to query for status and pass back the combined status
          (server chaining), or

     **   the first tracking server will return the address of the next
          MTA and the tracking client has the responsibility of contact-
          ing the next tracking server (server referrals).

5.3.2.  Active Request Tracking Information
Forms of active tracking information that could potentially be requested
are as follows.  (Note that no mechanisms currently exist for requesting
such information.)

     **   the message has been queued for later delivery

     **   the message was delivered locally

     **   the message was delivered to another MTA,

     **   the message was delivered to a foreign MTA

     **   ask a different tracking server,

     **   I know but can't tell you,

     **   I don't know.

5.4.  Combining DSN and MDN Information with Message Tracking Informa-
tion

     The information that would be retrieved by message tracking and the
information that is returned for DSN and MDN requests all attempt to
answer the question of "what happened to message XX"?  The information
provided by each is complementary in nature, but similar.  A tracking
user agent could use all three possible information  sources  to present
a total view of the status of a message.

     Both DSN and MDN notifications utilize the formats defined by RFC
1892 [RFC-REPORT].  This suggests that the information returned by mes-
sage tracking solutions should also be similar.

6.  Security

     This is a security model for message identification and authentica-
tion that could be deployed.  (There may be others.)

     A Tracking User Agent must prove that they are permitted to request
tracking information about a message.  Every [RFC-822]-compliant message



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is supposed to contain a Message-Id header.  One possible mechanism is
for the originator to calculate a one-way hash A from the message ID +
time stamp + a per-user secret.  The user then calculates another one-
way hash B to be the hash of A.  The user includes B in the submitted
message, and retains A.  Later, when the user makes a message tracking
request to the messaging system or tracking entity, it submits A in the
tracking request.  The entity receiving the tracking request then uses A
to calculate B, since it was already provided B, verifying that the
requestor is authentic.  In summary,

     A = H(message ID + time stamp + secret)

     B = H(A)

Another possible mechanism for A is to ignore the message ID and time
stamp and just use a one-way hash from a large (>128 bits) random
number.  B would be calculated as before.  In summary,

     A = H(large-random-number)

     B = H(A)

This is similar in technique to the methods used for One-Time Passwords
[RFC-OTP].  The success of these techniques is dependent on the random-
ness of the per-user secret or the large random number, which can be
incredibly difficult in some environments.

     If the originator of a message were to delegate his or her tracking
request to a third party by sending it A, this would be vulnerable to
snooping over unencrypted sessions.  The user can decide on a message-
by-message basis if this risk is acceptable.

7.  References


     [RFC-822] Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet
               Text Messages", STD 11, RFC 822, UDEL, August 1982.

     [RFC-DELIVER-BY]
               Newman, D., "Deliver By SMTP Service Extension", draft-
               newman-deliver-02.txt, Innosoft, January 1999.

     [RFC-DSN] Moore, K., and G. Vaudreuil, "An Extensible Message For-
               mat for Delivery Status Notifications", RFC 1894, Univer-
               sity of Tennessee, Octel Network Services, January 1996.

     [RFC-ESMTP-DSN]
               Moore, K., "SMTP Service Extension for Delivery Status



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               Notifications", RFC 1891, University of Tennessee, Janu-
               ary 1996.

     [RFC-KEYWORDS]
               Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
               Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, Harvard University, March
               1997.

     [RFC-MDN] Fajman, R., "An Extensible Message Format for Message
               Disposition Notifications", RFC 2298, National Institutes
               of Health, March 1998.

     [RFC-OTP] Haller, N., Metz, C., Nesser, P., Straw, M., "A One-Time
               Password System", RFC 2289, Bellcore, Kaman Sciences Cor-
               poration, Nesser & Nesser Consulting, Bellcore, February
               1998.

     [RFC-REPORT]
               Vaudreuil, G., "The Multipart/Report Content Type for the
               Reporting of Mail System Administrative Messages", RFC
               1892, Octel Network Services, January 1996.

     [RFC-SMTP]Postel, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", STD 10, RFC
               821, USC/Information Sciences Institute, August 1982.

8.  Acknowledgements

     This document is the product of input from many people and many
sources, including all of the members of the Message Tracking Working
Group.  It owes much to earlier work by Gordon Jones, Bruce Ernst and
Greg Vaudreuil.  In particular, I'd like to also thank Ken Lin for his
considerable contributions to the early drafts.

9.  Authors' Addresses
     Tony Hansen
     AT&T Laboratories
     Lincroft, NJ 07738
     USA

     Phone: +1 732 576-3207
     E-Mail: tony@att.com

10.  Full Copyright Statement

     Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

     This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or



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assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published and dis-
tributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided
that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all
such copies and derivative works.  However, this document itself may not
be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or
references to the Internet Society or other Internet organisations,
except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in
which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Stan-
dards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into
languages other than English.

     The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

     This document and the information contained herein is provided on
an "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT
NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL
NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR
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     This document expires May 6, 2002.





























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