Document: FSC-0038 Version: 001 Date: 02/22/90 A Domain Proposal For Fidonet(r) jim nutt 1:114/30@fidonet Information: This FSC suggests a proposed protocol for the FidoNet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Distribution of this document is unlimited. A. Rationale A recent proliferation of alternative networks based on Fidonet technology has brought to light the difficulty of maintaining a fully coupled addressing method for Fidonet. Additionally, Fidonet has joined the Internet, revealing a need for a transparent scheme for addressing messages across the networks. It is therefore proposed that a system be established whereby geographical or political sub units of the network can be broken off into an independent network called a "domain". These networks will be fully independent, even to the point of having duplicate net/node numbers or using a different addressing scheme altogether. This will allow continued growth of Fidonet without necessitating that the nodelist grow to an unmanageable size (if it isn't already there). Among the advantages of this type of system are reduced nodelist overhead, easier inter-network communication and greater autonomy of alternative networks. This document will only cover the definition of the necessary addressing extensions to support domain based addressing. It will not attempt to define standards for gating mail and conferences between domains. B. Description It is proposed that domain addressing be implemented in a fashion similar to the current ZONE extended addressing method. Domain names will be case insensitive. The domain extended addressing line will be comprised of a leading SOH (^A, 0x01) followed by the keyword "DOMAIN", the destination domain of the message and then the full address (zone:net/node.point) of the destination node in that domain, followed by the source domain of the message and the full address of the originating node. The line will be terminated by a (0x0d) and an optional linefeed (0x0a), fields within the line will be separated by one or more spaces or tabs. i.e. ^ADOMAIN dstdmn daddress srcdmn saddress Where "dstdmn" is the name of the destination domain and "daddress" is the address of the destination system in a format appropriate to the destination domain. "srcdmn" and "saddress" are similar, except that they express the origination address of the message in a format appropriate to the originating domain. This allows a seamless gateway to the Internet and other large system networks. The destination address in the FTS-001 message header should be that of a gateway to the destination domain. C. Summary Domains are independent networks that are fully decoupled from the Fidonet nodelist. Message traffic is passed back and forth between domains via domain gateways that can understand the DOMAIN extended addressing line and act accordingly upon the message. The advantages include reduced nodelist size and easier communication with other networks.