Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIMv2) is defined in RFC 3801 , an Internet standards track protocol.

VPIM defines a subset of the Internet multimedia messaging protocols (MIME

MIME

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet standard that extends the format of email to support:* Text in character sets other than ASCII* Non-text attachments* Message bodies with multiple parts...

) for use between voice processing server platforms.

This and related protocols define the familiar myEmailAddress@myDomain.com type of e-mail

E-mail

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

 addressing everyone now uses on the internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

, extending it from regular e-mail to voice mail and fax

Fax

Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...

 systems.

RFC 3801 refers to other RFCs for details on addressing[RFC 3804] and [RFC 3191], FAX[RFC 3192], and GSTN Address Extensions[RFC 2846]. These RFCs are mostly concerned with e-mail address formats, dividing addresses into left hand and right hand sides (LHS, before the @, and RHS, after the @), how protocols are extended to support voice messaging, faxes, and AMIS addressing (which supports phone number dialing), and how to register new values of GSTN service selectors VPIM, VOICE, AMIS, and SYSNUM with IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System , media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and numbers...

.

The RFCs define VPIM gateways to "translate between dissimilar environments." Both "onramps" (gateways which connects from another voice mail networking protocol to VPIM) and "offramps" (gateways which connect from VPIM to another voice mail networking protocol) are defined, casting VPIM as the inter-system "highway" that connects the different voice messaging systems together.

Messaging and voice messaging systems such as Microsoft's Exchange, Cisco System's Unity and Unity Connection, and Callware

Callware

Callware Technologies, Inc. is a software company in the telecommunication industry, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. It specializes in developing unified communication and unified messaging solutions for the US Department of Defense, government, educational institutions, and mid to...

's Callegra.UC product lines provide VPIM gateways with on and off ramp gateways to allow integration of similar and dissimilar messaging systems.

External links

• Vaudreuil, G. and Parsons G. (June 2004) RFC 3801: "Voice Profile for Internet Mail - version 2 (VPIMv2)" Retrieved on 2008-March-26
• Parsons, G. (June 2004). RFC 3804: "Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM) Addressing" Retrieved on 2008-March-26
• Allocchio, C. (October 2001) RFC 3191: "Minimal GSTN address format in Internet Mail" Retrieved on 2008-March-26
• Allocchio, C. (October 2001) RFC 3192: "Minimal FAX address format in Internet Mail" Retrieved on 2008-March-26
• Allocchio, C. (June 2000) RFC 2846: "GSTN Address Extensions" Retrieved on 2008-March-26