e on the client workstation. During the session, the Web browser interprets and displays the pages and acts as the universal client for any Web application. Most of the current EMS, NMS, and OSS/BSS applications are Web based. The intent of this chapter is to introduce the reader to Web application development, SO that the fundamentals can be supple- mented with additional reading to develop scalable Web-based operation support solutions. Additional Reading 1. Ralph F. Grove. Web-Based Application Development. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2009. 2. Leon Shklar and Rich Rosen. Web Application Architecture: Principles, Protocols and Practices. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 2009. Susan Fowler and Victor Stanwick. Web Application Design Handbook: Best Practices for Web-Based Software. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2004. 4. Ralph Moseley. Developing Web Applications. New York: Wiley, 2007. 5. Wendy Chisholm and Matt May. Universal Design for Web Applications: Web Applications That Reach Everyone. California: O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2008. Chapter 29 Mail Communication This chapter is about the mail communication. It introduces the reader to the concept of writing programs for mail service. It is quite common in current telecom management applications to have alerts and summary reports sent by mail from the EMS, NMS, and OSS/BSS solutions to the concerned operator or business manager. SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) has been used as the mail service protocol to explain the concepts of communication by mail. 29.1 Introduction The standard mechanism for electronic mailing on the Internet for sending a single message that includes text, video, voice, or graphics to one or more recipients is known as simple mail transfer protocol or SMTP. The electronic message called mail has an envelope containing the sender address, the receiver address, along with other information. The message has a header part and a body. The header has information on destination and source, while the body of the message holds the cont