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Email is a technique of transmitting messages from one system to another across the internet in real-time. Email usage was initially limited to users on the same computer, and it required users to be online in order to receive messages.
Time has passed, and we now know how the mailbox seems. The message can be sent to several recipients, and the recipient’s name can be disguised from other recipients by including their names in the Bcc section. As we all know, email is a popular means for us to connect with others, whether it’s for business, advertising, keeping track of transactions, or any other reason.
Although there are numerous high-quality email providers available, such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Apple, Proton, and many others, there is still a need to understand what an email system design is.
If you are interested in learning more about what an email system design is, then this post is for you. So, this post will provide you with a high-level overview of the Email system.
Email System Components
Mail User Agent – The Mail User Agent (MUA) is a program that allows you to compose, send, and receive emails.
Mail Transfer Agent – The Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) is in charge of all inbound and outbound mail.
Mail Host – A mail host is a server that sends and receives mail for a host or network. The emails will be stored in mailboxes on the mail server.
Domain Name Server – To determine where the email should be delivered, a domain name system (DNS) is necessary. A system that converts domain names like youtube.com, google.com, and others into IP addresses like 192.198.0.1.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol – It’s the most crucial component since it’s built as a server program that processes your emails, sends them to the appropriate server, and relays messages. It’s always on the lookout for new mail to send. Outgoing email is also verified by SMTP to guarantee that it comes from a real active user account.
High-Level Design
Important Email Design Terms
Although you presumably already know what’s in an email, it’s still useful to understand the components that go into creating one.
A normal email consists of two parts: a header and a body.
The first portion is called the header.
Sections that must be completed
- Who sent the email to:
- Who is the email addressed to?
- When did the email go out?
Sections with options
- What is the subject of the email?
- CC: who else should be included in the email as a receiver
The main body of the text
- Material and other prepared text, such as HTML, can be included in the body section.
- The body portion of the authorized part is depending on what the service provider permits in an email’s body.
It’s critical to understand the components of an email because they are the current industry standards for a normal email. Any user who wants to utilize the system appropriately will need to have a standard language that is easy to grasp.
Email Address
The capacity and functionality to send and receive emails must clearly be supplied to an email system user. An email address is required before someone can send an email.
Each and every email address is unique.
- Otherwise, DNS will treat both email addresses as the same IP address, which is used to decide where to send/receive emails if the email addresses are not unique.
Username/AddressName @ DomainName is the most common format for an email address.
- For example, “team” is the login, “@” is the @ symbol, and “opengenus.org” is the domain name (“opengenus.org”).
The username will be used to identify a unique address based on the IP address of the domain name.
Email System Functionality
1. Servers that store and transmit data
The Post Office Protocol (POP) is an example of a basic architecture in which the server stores messages until the user accesses and downloads them—having access to emails that have been downloaded at any time (even when offline).
2. Server-only email storage
Rather than storing all emails on the client’s computer, an alternate and superior way would be to keep them all on the server. The email view is identical across all machines, and the provider often stores emails in a centralized repository and handles mail operations on the server-side.
3. Caching systems at the client’s end
The usual strategy is which clients to maintain a cached version of the email display on their machines while the servers store the emails indefinitely. Emails are backed up, and sophisticated mail operations/features (searching/filtering/new emails/etc) are available even when the computer is turned off.
How does email flow internally?
Let’s have a look at how an email is sent. Emails, like other Internet data, are transmitted as a stream of packets across the internet’s TCP/IP protocol. This procedure is divided into three steps:
- When an email is sent, the TCP protocol divides it into packets (), each of which contains the sender’s and recipient’s addresses.
- The packets are routed to their desired destination via the IP protocol. Routers on the internet check each packet’s address to determine the most efficient path to the email’s destination server. The packets are routed to the next router when a path has been planned. The volume of traffic on any given network, for example, influences how email packets are routed.
- When the packets arrive at the recipient’s email server, TCP reassembles them into the original email format (that the recipient can read).
Email Servers(SMTP & MTA)
Unlike a physical mailbox, where all of your mail is handled by one provider, the post office, email handles incoming and outgoing mail separately. There are two different kinds of servers.
The Simple Mail Transfer System (SMTP) is an email delivery protocol that allows you to send and receive messages over the internet. SMTP is a protocol that carries information about an email message’s transmission details and is only used for outgoing mail.
A Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) is a server application that sends emails using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). A client-based MTA, which includes installing software to access emails (such as Outlook), and a web-based MTA, which is accessed through a web browser, are the two types of MTAs (Gmail, for example).
Anyone with a computer can operate an MTA. It’s simple, and an MTA will take care of incoming mail. Running your own MTA to send a large number of bulk emails while maintaining a high degree of deliverability might be difficult.
There are some norms and conventions that must be adhered to. Failure to follow them will jeopardize your capacity to deliver mail on time. Configuring your clients to utilize your ISP’s SMTP server rather than setting up and running your own is a faster, more easy option.
Email Protocols
Post Office Protocol (POP) is an acronym for Post Office Protocol. Email is retrieved using this piece of software. POP3 allows an email user to view their emails stored on the server in their user account. You don’t have to stay online to get your emails. To access an email, you only need to leave a copy on the server.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a little more sophisticated when it comes to email management. IMAP clients and servers have a two-way conversation. Unlike POP, the IMAP protocol retains a duplicate of each message on the server so that it can be accessed by numerous clients. When you receive an email, this protocol is utilized. When using IMAP, emails remain on the server rather than being downloaded to the user’s mailbox and then removed.
In the background of an email system, there are a lot more intricate components.
I hope that you now have a better grasp of the email system, including its protocols, servers, and other components.
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