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New Era for Police Telecommunications

NCJ Number
155721
Journal
International Criminal Police Review Issue: 446 Dated: (January- February 1994) Pages: 2-6
Author(s)
D Suc
Date Published
1994
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes Interpol's historic changeover from radio transmissions to electronic communications using the X.400 network.
Abstract
The general principle of the X.400 network is to communicate noninteractively (asynchronous mode), thus removing recipient constraints and the possibility of an application not being available. Messages are exchanged in two stages, recording followed by retransmission. This store-and-forward mode makes it possible to overcome problems of incompatibility between equipment by reducing them to questions of interconnection between systems. The functional message handling model of the X.400 network is based on two independent modules, the User Agent (UA) and the Message Transfer Agent (MTA). The UA is a set of computer processes that permit the user to create, send, receive, and process messages. MTA's communicate between each other using standardized and highly secure communications protocols that conform to international norms symbolized by the open systems interconnection model and defined by the International Systems Organization. Features of the X.400 network are detailed, particularly with respect to message addressal and transmission and information processing. Planned future developments are described that focus on an improved X.500 network. 1 figure and 1 photograph