FROM: N6IYA @ N6IYA.#WCCA.CA.USA.NOAM

SUBJ: Forwarding and Distribution

**** BBS FORWARDING STANDARDS - DRAFT ****

This document is submitted as a foundation for the forwarding of messages in the Personal Message Forwarding System (PMFS) and Bulletin Distribution Forwarding System (BDFS) as used by the Amateur Radio Packet Network as presently constituted in the United States of America. Its main focus is on establishing a set of standards for the distribution of bulletin type messages meant for the general consumption of all licensed Amateur Radio Stations in a message forwarding system. It assumes an understanding of Hierarchical Addressing in the PMFS and the difference between a routing and a distribution.

This proposal is base on the premise that the unused domains in Hierarchical addressing can be re-used in a bulletin forwarding scheme. It also assumes that the current generation of software can differentiate between a type P and type B message. The proposal has been tested and is in use in areas against the various types of software that are currently in use. Older versions of software may not be able to support this and the users of this software should be encouraged to upgrade to more current versions. Bulletins are considered to be distributions and are distributed according to the token as placed in the @BBS field. Currently the tokens used operate using a modified form of the continental or state code with ALL or BBS added.

The initial usage of this form of token was to differentiate bulletins in the infancy of packet message handling. This was because the early versions of the code could not differentiate between @XX and .XX. But these were the days when we all kept callsigns for all of our forwarding schemes no matter where the message was destined. To understand how this scheme would work it is necessary to understand the personal messaging system and its addressing.

With more sophisticated code we can now differentiate between @XX and.XX and type P and type B traffic to the point that our personal message forwarding scheme has been reduced to the use of the state, country and continental H addresses except within our immediate domain.

The domains are defined in a personal messaging system in format of bbs.region.state.country.continent

Continent: Four characters, e.g. NOAM.

Country: Three characters, e.g. USA.

State/Province: Two characters, usually a postal code e.g. NY.

Region: No more than six characters starting with "#", e.g. #WCCCA

BBS: The callsign of the target BBS system, e.g. N6IYA.

The system using the above would contain in its forwarding files the minimum amount of information required to move personal messages to their intended addressee. The examples are based on my BBS where the H address is Callsign @ N6IYA.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM

All of the continental codes except for its own domain address.

For example: within North America the NOAM designator would not be present and is not considered for forwarding.

All of the Country codes within its continental domain except for its own domain address.

For example: within North America and the United States the USA designator would not be present and not considered for forwarding.

All of the state or provincial codes within its country domain except for its own domain address.

For example: within the United States the CA designator would not be present and not considered for forwarding.

All of the regional codes within its state domain except for its own regional domain address. This is optional and not required. All others are required.

For example: within CA the #NOCAL designator would not be present and not considered for forwarding within its own domain. It would be used from the other adjacent domains to move traffic into the area on an optional basis.

All of the BBS callsigns with its regional or State (if regional forwarding is not used) domains except its own.

For example: at the N6IYA system the N6IYA callsign would not be present and not considered for forwarding.

All of the schemes in use currently adapt the state or continental code by using ALL or BBS as a prefix or suffix in the format of ALLXX, XXALL XXBBS or BBSXX and places this token in the @BBS field. This limits the 6-character field to 3 useful information-carrying characters. It also limits the flexibility and expendability of the current system because there are no effective standards for use of this field. The system in place severely limits the ability to distribute bulletin traffic either in a wide scale scheme or to specific target distributions. All of the tokens in place have at their root the continental, state or regional designators that are used in the personal messaging forwarding system detailed above.

This is the least common denominator and by dropping the ALL and BBS will allow network expansion and flexibility for bulletin distribution by freeing the three character fields currently occupied by ALL and BBS for use in determining bulletin distribution tokens. This would give the current system a greater degree of flexibility in creating addition distribution tokens.

Bulletins that are to be sent to a state are to be addressed @XX where XX is the state USPS Code. A second token in the form of the standard H address can be used to further route the traffic to its intended distribution target. So a bulletin destined to OK would be addressed as SB <Topic> @ OK.OK. The .OK routes the message and the @ OK determines its distribution. In the case where a distribution is required outside of the current country domain it will be necessary to add the appropriate country domain to the address. (See Below for details) A simplified method would be to add the whole Hierarchical string to every message. This would remove any confusion.

State addressing can be further broken down around the cardinal points of the compass to subdivide a state for more precise targeting. These precede the XX state code and should not exceed 4 characters in length

N = North

S = South

E = East

W = West

C = Central

NE = Northeast

NW = Northwest

SE = Southeast

SW = Southwest

Examples:

If further subdivision is desired there is plenty of ample space for additional designators. I don't anticipate too much breakdown beyond the ones listed. Conflicts are always possible and will have to be considered on a case by case basis. If a regional type distributor token is in use that conflicts with the above rules the offending designator should be changed. For example, just dropping the "all" from the local distributor would result in a distributor of CAN (California North). This would conflict with the country distributor of CAN for Canada. The local distributor should be changed to conform with the above rules to NCA (Northern California).

Bulletins for countrywide distribution would be addressed as SB <Topic> @ XXX where XXX is the country code. This is the current practice in Europe and works quite well. Again the second token would be required to route the bulletin to its intended target distribution if outside of the local domain.

(See State section above.)

If the bulletin is to be targeted to a country outside of your own Continental domain then:

* If there are 2 different paths for message movement one for personals and one for bulletins the second address would be used in this situation in addition to distribution within the country domain.

Bulletins to be sent to a Continental area are to be sent as @XXXX (NOAM) as dictated by the receiving parties. NOAM is to include CAN, MEX and USA.

Regional distribution remains at the discretion of each region but could also be addressed under the same scheme. What is presented above will take care of the vast majority of the bulletin addressing and give the users some flexibility.