Re: Proposal for the interactive message tracking protocol

Tomorrow SystemsInc wrote:
> ...
> As far as the following goes:
> 
> >There might be an issue
> > with handing back
> > response data like this in SMTP in that it would be
> > somewhat larger than
> > your average SMTP response.
> 
> At what point does this apply ? Do you mean during the
> setup phase of an SMTP session  only ?  MTAs pass some
> very large messages, so the overhead of the message
> tracking response is probably about the same as a
> message unless there is a protocol-specific state
> where MTAs traditionally don't want to see a "larger
> than average SMTP response" as you describe above.

It's the opposite of the usual client-to-server ratio (large data
segments compared to small server responses), but the comparison is apt.
If the response to a tracking request were encapsulated in what
essentially looks like a delivery notification, then it will be the size
of a small mail message.

> Otherwise, what is the anticipated ratio of message
> tracking requests versus normal message traffic ?

I expect it to be rather low.

> Is there a class of user who will want to saturate and
> MTA with message tracking requests ?

Hmmm, good question.

	Tony Hansen
	[email protected]