Document Transfer and Manipulation (DTAM) Standard

for Telematic Applications

Kouji Nakao and Hans Detlef Schulz
Kouji Nakao, OS1 Systems Group KDD R&D Labs., Saitama, Japan
Hans Detlef Schulz, DANET GmbH, GS TD,Darmstadt, FRG

ABSTRACT Multimedia Services and communications The contept of T.400 series of Recommendations,
are getting major topics among computer applications called Document Architecture Transfer and
and telecommunication services. In the telematic Manipulation", is described in Recommendation T.400.
applications, document bulk transfer, document The basic idea o f T.400 and T.500 series . o f
conferencin and remote document handling have Recommendations i s t o separate , t h e technical
now been &used t o be standardized in C C l l T SGVlll specifications of Telematic Services into a set of
as lnte rated Document Communications for Recommendations describing:
MultimeJia Services. This is important not only - the equipment participating i n t h e
because documents are considered as multimedia service/a pplication,
objects, but also because document communications - the information architecture which may be
can be combined w i t h voice and image communicated,
communications. Since 1985, Document Transfer and - and the ap ropriate communication protocol
Manipulation (DTAM) protocol has been designed and su porting Loth, t h e equi ment and the
developed t o be suited and used in common for inErmation t o be communicatet?
these communications. DTAM will soon provide a The relevant equipment characteristics are defined in
powerful communication platform as a complete OS1 T.560 series of Recommendations.
application protocol useful in telematic services as The information architecture called "Open Document
well as many other applications. Purpose of this paper Architecture(0DA)" is defined in T.410 series .of
is t o introduce the current activity on DTAM standard Recommendations which are jointly worked out with
in CCITT, and describes i t s applications and ISO/I EC JTC 1/SC 18MIG3. The document ap p Iicat1o n
relationship with other communication environments. profiles (DAP) are specified in T.500 series o f
Recommendations.
1. Introduction :he telematic communication protocol, called
Multimedia Services and communications are gettin Document Transfer and Manipulation (DTAM)", is
major topics among computer applications a n i defined in T.430 series o f Recommendations as an
telecommunication services. In t h e telematic useful communication platform. The communication
applications, document bulk transfer, document application profiles (CAP) are specified in T.520 series
conferencin and remote document handling have of Recommendations.
now been &used t o be standardized in C C l l T SGVlll Structure of Recommendations T.400 and T.500 series
as " Inte g rated Docu ment Co mmu n icat ion s " f o r is illustrated in Fig. 1.
Multimedia Services. This is n o t only because
documents are considered as multimedia object, but
also because document communications can be
,I;
Fi
combined with other media communications such as T. 400 series
voice and image. Telematic applications are therefore
related t o Multimedia Services and communications. T. 411
From the standpoint o f the above Integrated Operational
Document Communications, SG Vlll has started t o Service8 &
work o n T.400 series and T.500 series of
Recommendations since 1985 re arding Document
Architecture, Transfer and Mani ufation. This concept 1
is an extended interpretation o?OSl as it defines the T. 500 - T.559
complete environment in which communication takes series
place, including equipment characteristics, information
APPLICATION
architecture, and general aspects of Telematic Services PROFILES
Document
(e.g. Quality of Service). Application Application
Document Transfer and Manipulation (DTAM)
protocol, which is the communication part of T.400
series, namely T.430 series of Recommendations, has
been designed and developed t o be suited and used T. 560 - T.569
i n common f o r t h e above h i g h l i g h t e d series
communications. DTAM will soon provide a powerful
communication platform as a complete OS1 TERMINAL
CHARACTERISTICS,
application protocol useful in telematic services as GATEWAY & Gateway
well as many other applications. CHARACTERISTICS
Charactaristica
This paper introduces the current activity on DTAM
standard in CCIlT, and describes i t s applications and Fig. 1 Structure of Recommendations T.400 and
relationship with other communication environments. T.500 series
2. Overview of Recommendations related t o DTAM 2.2 Overview o f T.430 series of Recommendations
2.1 Structure o f T.400 and T.500 series o f DTAM, T.430 series of Recommendations, defines the
Recommendations means of a direct communication, and provides a

547
common communication platform useful in telematic
services as well as many other applications including
Multimedia Services. T.430 series i s a set o f
Recommendations, whereof:
- Draft Recommendation T.430 Communication Model
ives an introduction and defines the basic model
9or end t o end communication,
- Recommendation T.431 defines the application rules
for T.430 series,
- Recommendation T.432 defines the DTAM service,
- Recommendation T.433 specifies the DTAM protocol.
- Recommendation T.434 specifies Telematic File
Transfer format,
- Draft Recommendation T.435 defines Abstract
Service Definition for Document Manipulation,
- Draft Recommendation T.436 defines Protocol
Specifications for Document Manipulation.
Although, originally conceived t o communicate ODA
documents, DTAM is well suited for a variety of
media communications because it i s based on well
established OS1 standards.
3. DTAM Communication Functions
3.1 DTAM in relation t o the Application Layer
Structure
The structuring o f the OS1 application layer is
described in I S 0 9545 (ALS : Application Layer
Structure). DTAM conforms t o the principles
described in ALS. That is, DTAM-SE is an application
service element (ASE) which is used in conjunction
with at least ACSE.
An exception is contained in the DTAM transparent
mode, which has been defined t o guarantee
compatibility for the Group 4 Facsimile application
and might only be used by this application. In this
case, ACSE and t h e presentation layer are
transparently passed through.
A l t h o u g h DTAM-SE i s o n e ASE, several
"communication application profiles" of DTAM are
defined t o support different requirements. This leads
t o the fact that different application contexts are
defined based on the use of DTAM-SE and ACSE. For
example, ap lication contexts for document bulk
transfer a n 8 document manipulation, described
hereafter, are separately defined by DTAM - RTSE -
ACSE and DTAM - ROSE - ACSE, respectively.
3.2 DTAM Communication features
DTAM has the following communication features. As
f o r document bulk transfer and document
mani ulation, further detail communication functions
are &scribed in section 3.3 and 3.4 respectively.
0 Capabilities Information ExSFange
DTAM provides t o exchange capabilities information"
not only at the association establishment phase but
also in the middle o f association in order t o
negotiate user's capabilities by which the end-systems
can agree on.
A user is able t o exchange any t pes o f information
as "capabilities information" whicl are, for example,
the ODA-DAP t o be supported, the manipulation
functions that are necessary, and the non-basic
parameters t h a t are required on the o u t p u t
processing capabilities of the receiver.
0 Information communicated by DTAM
Information exchanged and manipulated by DTAM is
called Document in general. It covers any types of
information considered in telematic communication
environment. For example, ODA, SGML, AV1
information, Videotex frame information, and
Multimedia information are categorized in the
documents. However, since DTAM had initially started
t o work on ODA documents, it is therefore well
prepared b DTAM t o negotiate ODA capabilities,
transfer andYmanipulate ODA documents.
0 Document Bulk Transfer
548
DTAM provides direct documents transfer between
end systems in a reliable manner which has resulted
in a suitable version currently available from CCIlT.
This is not based on Client - Server model, but based
on the traditional concept o f end - t o - end
communication in C C l l l SG Vlll such as Teletex and
Telefax. Detailed descriptions are shown in 3.3.
0 Document Manipulation
DTAM provides document manipulation based on the
Client - Server model. In this communication, a client
could manipulate documents stored in the remote
server system by using manipulation operations such
as delete, modify, and move. Stud on this .DTAM
function is now being continueJ and will be
completed in the next C C I l l study period. (1993 -
1996). Detailed descriptions regarding manipulation
are shown in 3.4.
3.3 Document Bulk Transfer
DTAM Document Bulk Transfer i s used for conveying
documents which are ODA and / o r other types of
documents t o the remote DTAM - User. The requester
who requests the document bulk transfer should have
a data token in an appro riate manner. It is provided
by D-TRANSFER service wEich is a provider confirmed
type defined in T.432 as in Fig.2.
I
I
DTAM Service Provider
Fig. 2 D-TRANSFER service
I
The document bulk transfer is composed of two
different sets o f procedures depending on the
Transfer Modes, Transparent mode or Normal mode.
0 Transparent mode : Every reliable function is
provided by DTAM without using RTSE supporting
the following procedures :
a)Transfer Procedure for transmission of a complete
document ;
b)Transfer-Resume Procedure for retransmission of a
partial document for resuming purpose ;
c) Transfer-Interrupt Procedure t o interrupt the
transmission of a document in case o f error;
d)Transfer-Discard Procedure t o interrupt the
transmission of a document in case o f error and
indicate that the art of the document already
transmitted has t o e: deleted
The Transfer-Interrupt and Transfer-Discard
Procedures result in a D-TRANSFER indicationkonfirm
t o the DTAM - User t o indicate the failure of the
transfer, and the user is then responsible for
initiating a new transfer (complete or partial
document). This mode is only used by G4 facsimile
application.
0 Normal mode : RTSE services are used t o
support document bulk transfer in a reliable
manner. This mode is used by MM(Mixed mode)
and PM(Processab1e mode) communications, and it
is expected t o be used for future general document
bulk transfer applications.
3.4 Document Manipulation
In order t o provide document manipulation functions,
a general manipulation protocol is now being
designed and specified by DTAM. Furthermore, DTAM
will provide communication platform in a general
manner t o cover any type o f applications t o sup ort
document manipulation. The following items are Lasic
elements t o construct document manipulation
functions under DTAM environment.
(1) DTAM document manipulation model (2) Information Model for Document Manipulation
The Document Manipulation environment comprises A DTAM Server offers its users operations on
two atomic objects, the Document Manipulation documents and on the environment which determines
Server (DTAM-Server) and the Document Manipulation the capabilities h o w t h e document can be
User (DTAM-User). The DTAM-Server supplies the manipulated.
DTAM port abstract services t o the DTAM-User. The Documents may be substructured objects t o be
DTAM-User consumes the DTAM port abstract services considered as DTAM Manipulation Objects (DMO). For
supplied b the DTAM-Server. Fig. 3 depicts the example,
DTAM moJel and Table 1 lists up the DTAM port -0DA document, substructured into several types of
abstract services. objects, classes, styles, content etc. For example,
delete operation is carried out as shown in Fig. 4.
In this case, three paragraphs which are
(7q Abstractservice DTAM-User
substructure of ODA document are requested t o
delete.
- 0 D A Document Application Profiles (DAPs),
substructured into different semantic features, such
as paragraphs, footnotes, tables of content etc.
-any other types of structured documents, such as
SGML.
-any other types of data in a structured form.
Abstractservice (3) Identification o f DTAM Manipulation Objects
provider
(DMO)
DTAM document manipulation provides t h e
operations t o handle a previously identified document
Fig. 3 Document Manipulation Model for different purposes, such as delete, move, partial
read etc. The operations consist of three subsequently
Table 1 List of Operations for Document Manipulation identified groups : one for handling of the complete
document, one for handling o f the structured parts of
Manipulation Type 1 DTAM port abstract services the document (e. . paragraph, figure), and one for
handling the dderently structured content of the
Management of document - DialogueStarUEnd document (e.g. character, raphic primitive).
manipulation operations - DialogueInterrupt/ Resume
- OpenDocument I CloseDocument
In the case o f handlin 07
the structured parts of the
ODA document as. ifustrated in Fig. 4, DMO is
specified by identification of Document Fragments
Non altering operations - Get, Search which is studied in ODA group (ISO/IEC JTClISC18MIG3
- Lock/Unlock and CC!lT SGVlll 4.27).
Altering operations - Create, Delete, Modify (4) Basic Procedure of Document Manipulation
- Replace, Copy, Move The following procedures are considered as a basic
- Synchronize, Call-Macro protocol sequence for document manipulation.
0 DTAM association establishment
I Token
Management
- MTokenGive
- MTokenFlease
The initiator creates a DTAM association for the
application association linkin between DTAM - User
and DTAM - Server. During #is establishment, each

DTAM -Server

Delete
start-object
Request octet-aligneh : I, 1denWi.cation of Document Fragments
remon
- start !
! component
!
object
object : Object-id 3 0 j! DTAM - PM
! end !
! component !
! object
!
L. -. - .- .- .- .-. -. -. - .- . :-?!jse_tlid3_ 11.1
I I I
Delete Result
~ ~

: Success +DELETE oueration Delete Result : Success

DeleteResult : NULL -success--
-
Fig. 4 Exampleof Delete Operation to ODA document

549
DTAM service user exchanges its own application
capabilities includin manipulation capabilities. These
capabilities indicate8 from the pacner are interpreted DTAM Association Start
as the partner's receiving capabilities, and are not (including Manipulation Capability indication)
recognized as capabilities invocation.
8 Manipulation dialogue start
Prior t o manipulating documents actually, DTAM
provides t o manage a set of mani ulations as a
manipulation dialo ue. At the start o r the dialogue,
manipulation capaklities information is negotiated
and invoked. Within the dialogue, manipulations are
carried out for documents selected and opened. One
of the purpose o f the management of this dialo ue is
t o recover from unexpected termination 09 the
application association. Since the association and the
manipulation dialogue are completely independent
each other, in case o f abrupt termination o f
association, the current manipulation dialogue is still
active and will be able t o be resumed in the Hmipulation Dialogue End
forthcoming association establishment.
d Document open I
IDTAM Association
Documents t o be manipulated should be selected and
opened by a DTAM-User. After the document open,
$ Termination
:Document manipulations DOC : Document

he could manipulate the document. He could open
more than two documents within a manipulation
dialogue.
@ Document create, delete, modify,
The DTAM-User could manipulate documents opened
beforehand. Furthermore, he could manipulate among
more than two documents, e.g. copying a part of one
document t o another document.
0 Document close
After the manipulation of the document, he closes
the document t o stop manipulating and t o register it
as the result of a sequence of manipulations. This
operation is not in conjunction with the forthcoming
end of the manipulation dialogue.
@ Manipulation dialogue end
After all the manipulations for the documents used,
the DTAM-User will issue a manipulation dialogue
end in order t o terminate a series of document
manipulations. This operation will not take place in
conjunction with an association termination. He could
start another new manipulation dialogue, if any.
8 DTAM association termination
After all the activities for document manipulations,
the DTAM-User terminates the association t o close the
communication between DTAM service users.
Fig. 5 illustrates a n example o f document
manipulation procedure. In this case, three
documents are opened and manipulated between
DTAM service users within a single manipulation
dialogue.
4. End-to-End Applications Supported by DTAM
DTAM provides a common communication platform
useful in telematic services based on T.400/T.500 series
as well as many other applications including
Multimedia Services. That is t o say, DTAM
communication functions described in Section 3 are
available in common for any applications supporting
document communications as depicted in Fig. 6.
The end-to-end applications supported by DTAM over
the common communication platform are currently
identified as follows.
4.1 Document Bulk Transfer Application
The following applications are defined :
0 Group 4 Facsimile application
Group 4 is the option of the Telefax service that is
defined for the ISDN network by use of an OS1
protocol stack in the B-channel. It enables the users
t o communicate facsimile documents as ODA final
form documents in a high speed, high quality
environment.
Fig. 5 An Example of Documents Manipulation
including Dialogue
0 ODA Documents
0 Multimedia Information
I 0 Any Other Information I
DTAM Service Provider
Fig. 6 DTAM Communication Platform
Group 4 Facsimile is supported by the DTAM
transparent mode which realizes a backward
compatibility for the Telefax Group 4 equipment
already places in the market. Technically, there is a
lar e alignment between the DTAM transparent mode
an! the communication platform of X.400(84) on one
hand, and between the DTAM normal mode and the
communication platform of X.400(88).
However, DTAM transparent mode (Group 4) and
DTAM normal mode are specified for different types
of applications, and hence there is no intention t o
replace the DTAM transparent mode by the DTAM
normal mode in the Group 4 application.
0 ODA Processable Mode, Mixed Mode and File
Transfer application
ODA processable mode and mixed mode have been
initially targeted as options of the Teletex service.
Now, DTAM has defined ODA document transfer
(mixed mode and processable mode) and a binary file
transfer as the end-to-end communications supported
by DTAM normal mode, independently if the relevant
terminals are participatin in a service or not.
This communication can %e clearly distinguished from
the scanner-to-printer situation i n t h e DTAM
transparent mode, described above.
This DTAM bulk transfer for ODA and file transfer
represents the f u l l ali n m e n t o f Telematic
communication platforms fecause the underlying
communication platforms are identical (based on
RTSE). In this context, DTAM has the role t o support
t h e PC-to-PC ( e n d - t o - e n d ) c o m m u n i c a t i o n
(Intentionally over ISDN).

550

4.2 Document Manipulation Application
The following three specific applications are
identified. The first application has already been
standardized, but the last two applications are now
under study.
0 Videotex lnterworking
Due t o differences among videotex systems, CClTT has
been studying interworking problems since 1977. In
the 1985-1988 study period, a new series of
Recommendations, T.101, T.564, T.504, T.523 and
T.541, was defined for videotex interworking throu h
fateways. In the gateway configuration, a user w60
elongs t o the local videotex system accesses the
remote external videotex system via gateway facilities.
Two types o f gateway systems are considered. One is
a Local Host (LH) located at the user side, and the
other is an External Host (EH) located at the remote
videotex center side. The communication is carried
out between the LH and the EH usin the DTAM
document manipulation (e.g. delete vi3eotex frame
and create new frame); however communication
rocedures outside of gateways, such as an interface
E etween the LH and the user terminal, are left
completely as a local implementation.
0 Document Conference Application
This type o f application enables two human users t o
execute a common work on one or more documents.
For example, as shown in Fig. 7, docyments are
generated and prepar:? by the partner A", and is
sent t o the partner B" at the beginning of the
communication. Afterwards, one of the partner select
a document "D" t o identify for conferencing. In this
stage, a partner could manipulate the identified
document by DTAM, and if necessary, the other
partner could also manipulate it alternately. In the
final stage, both partners are able t o have the same
document which is a result o f the manipulation from
the conference.
Document
Fig.7 Document Conference Application with
Telephone
0 Remote Document Handlin Application
This ty e o f ap lication ena%Ies a human user (e.g.
throug: his worrstation) t o select and identify one or
more documents in the Server located in a remote
side, or rearrange structured organization in the
Server. In the case o f updating the content o f
documents selected, he could afterwards manipulate
the content o f documents by using DTAM
manipulation commands such as replace, move and
modify attributes.
5. Relationship with O t h e r Communication
Environments
5.1 Relation t o the Distributed Office Applications
Telematic applications, based on the end-to-end
communication model defined by DTAM, are
supported t o intercommunicate with applications
551
based on the Store-and-Forward concept o f
communication, e.g. MHS.
Store-and-Forward applications are defined by C C l l l
X.400 series of Recommendations. As X.500 series of
Recommendations, they are related t o the DOAM
communication concept currently defined by ISO/IEC
JTCl/SC 18, upon which also DFR(Document Filin and
Retrieval) and RDT(Referenced Data Transfer7 are
based.
Intercommunication of DTAM based applications with
the MHS (X.400) and the Directory Services (X.500)
will be defined in a CClTT Recommendation T.330
series. The basic communication procedure for
intercommunication w i t h Store-and-Forward
applications will be described in the Recommendation
T.430 series.
As far as the relation t o DFR in ISOllEC JTCl/SC 18 is
concerned, DTAM and DFR have. jointly identified
areas o f work where the coordination is necessary. It
is intended that the cooperative work roject
between SC18 and SG Vlll will be uided gy the
complementary nature of the work o! both groups.
The result should make the standards o f SC 18 on
DFR available f o r incorporation i n t o CClTT
Recommendations as w e l l as m a k i n the
Recommendations o f SG Vlll on DTAM availa%le for
incorporation into ISO/IEC JTCl standards.
5.2 DTAM Support for Other Environments
DTAM service and protocol also support direct
communication in a distributed environment. This
mechanisms are related t o the Distributed Amlication
..
Framework (DAF).
Close liaison between CClTT SG V!l Q.19 (DAF) and
CClTT SG VlllQ.27 (DTAM) has been installed t o ensure
that the Distributed Application Framework also
covers the requirements o f the End - t o - End
communication environment defined by DTAM for the
telematic applications.
On the other hand, the liaison shall ensure that the
communication features defined by DTAM are in line
with the overall concepts of the Application layer
defined by CClTT SG VII.
6. Conclusion
Taking into account the various communication styles
and various user requirements under the different
environments, it would be highly desirable for
protocol designers t o specify valuable communication
functions in reply t o the user requirements on call
basis.
Based on the above philosophy, DTAM has specified
the basic functions of document bulk transfer for
telematic applications and will soon provide the
further functions for document manipulation based
on the end - t o - end communication model
cooperating with CClTT SG VI1 (DAF) and ISO/IEC
JTCl/SC18MIG4.
Aiming at the useful protocol means for integrated
document communications, including multimedia
environment, DTAM shows great promise as a
communication platform useful in telematic services as
well as many other applications. DTAM is the only
standardized communication platform that supports
both document bulk transfer and document
manipulation in OS1 communication environment.