198411 – Keddie – Experience with a Computer Based Message Switching System

In June 1984, Australian National began commissioning a Computer Based Message Switching (CBMS) System This system was intended to eliminate telegraph offices located at the Adelaide Railway Station, Port Augusta and Peterborough, and provide increased facilities to al l teleprinter operators connected to the system.

Other mainland railway systems in Australia have message switching systems either operating, being commissioned or in the tender stages. When al l systems are operational and interconnected, a Teleprinter Operator situated anywhere in Australia will be able to send a message to any other Operator in any other Railway system I direct, ie. at no stage will the message be converted .either to an operator readable form or converted to paper tape for retransmission.

The system selected by Australian National as satisfying its requirements for Message Switching is manufactured in England by Computer & Systems Engineering (CASE) who are represented in Australia by Case Communications in Sydney.

This paper is not intended to be a technical treatise on Computer Based Message Switching Systems but rather wi l l serve to introduce the reader to the facilities that can be supported on a Computer Based Message Switch beyond the obvious function of telegraph message switching and present some findings based on Australian National’s experience with the Case System.

For the purposes of definition of a Message Switching System the following extract from Telephony/June 25, 1984t is quoted:

“There are various interpretations of the term “electronic mail” and distinctions are sometimes made between electronic mail and electronic messaging… electronic mail refers to the transmission electronically of items which would otherwise be sent by physical means: essentially, paper documents which could be sent via facsimile or communicating word processors.

“In some types of system, the item is not necessarily received in the same form in which it was created; in other words, only the textual content of the item is transmitted without information about how the text was originally laid out. This is fine when only the content matters – in other words, when simple messages are being transmitted – but in many cases, and specifically in those applications currently involving documents, the received message should be as close as possible in appearance to the original.

“With both Teletex and facsimile the received “document” has the same appearance as the original. On the other hand, in computer-based message switching systems (CBMS), where the sent message is typically contained in an electronic mailbox for subsequent retrieval by the addressed party (or parties), there is no original document, nor any intent to create a document as such, and the string of alphanumerics can be displayed or printed in any readable form without affecting the meaning or value of the message.

“A distinction thus can be made between electronic mail services which are intrinsically document-oriented (teletex, facsimile) and those which are message oriented. Teletex and facsimile (and, of course, telex) also can be used for items where document orientation is irrelevant. CBMS could provide facilities for formatted message communications.

“A hybrid electronic mail service is a service where electronic transmission is combined with physical transport of the item, to the point of transmission by the sender, from the point of reception to the ultimate addressee, or both. Telegram service is of this nature. . . . . “