Peer-to-peer email messaging

• US 20040064511A1
• Filed: 08/29/2002
• Published: 04/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: VanDenHoogen, Ingrid, Reid, Matthew, Clary, Michael J., Traversat, Bernard A., Joy, William N., Abdel-Aziz, Mohamed M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,849,140 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1044 Group management mechanisms management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers

Abstract

System and method for facilitating communications between peers in a peer-to-peer environment and network email clients. In one embodiment, network nodes including peer nodes may host mail transfer agents. The mail transfer agents may act as bridges between peer-to-peer protocols and email communication protocols. The mail transfer agents may communicate with peers according to peer-to-peer protocols and with email clients according to email communications protocols. Peers may communicate with mail transfer agents to send peer-to-peer messages to email clients. Email clients may communicate with the mail transfer agents to send email messages to and receive email messages from other email clients via the peer-to-peer network and to obtain peer-to-peer messages from peers.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a plurality of nodes configured to couple to a network;

a subset of the plurality of nodes configured to participate as peer nodes in a peer-to-peer environment on the network according to one or more peer-to-peer protocols;

wherein one of the plurality of peer nodes is configured to;

receive an email message formatted according to an email communication protocol;

determine one of the peer nodes as a destination peer node of the email message;

generate a peer-to-peer message formatted in accordance with one of the peer-to-peer protocols, wherein the peer-to-peer message comprises the email message; and

send the peer-to-peer message to the destination peer node in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein, to send the peer-to-peer message to the destination peer node, the one of the plurality of peer nodes is configured to send the peer-to-peer message to the destination peer node via a pipe in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol, wherein the pipe represents a virtual communications channel for peer-to-peer communications with one or more of the plurality of peer nodes on the network.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the email message comprises a destination address, and wherein, to determine the one of the plurality of peer nodes as the destination peer node, the one of the plurality of peer nodes is configured to discover the destination peer node according to a peer discovery protocol using the destination address.

4. The system as recited in claim 3, wherein the destination address is an email address formatted according to the email communication protocol.

5. The system as recited in claim 3, wherein the destination address is a universal unique identifier formatted according to the peer-to-peer protocol.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the destination peer node is configured to:

receive the peer-to-peer message;

obtain the email message from the peer-to-peer message; and

provide the email message to an email client of the destination peer node in accordance with the email communication protocol.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of peer nodes is further configured to:

receive a different peer-to-peer message;

generate an email message comprising the different peer-to-peer message; and

provide the email message comprising the different peer-to-peer message to an email client of the one of the plurality of peer nodes in accordance with the email communication protocol.

8. The system as recited in claim 7,

wherein the one of the plurality of peer nodes is configured to store the email message comprising the different peer-to-peer message to a data store;

wherein the email client is configured to access the one of the plurality of peer nodes to retrieve stored email messages; and

wherein, to provide the email message comprising the different peer-to-peer message to the email client in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol, the one of the plurality of peer nodes is further configured to send the stored email message comprising the different peer-to-peer message to the email client in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol in response to said access.

9. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein the one of the plurality of peer nodes is further configured to receive the different peer-to-peer message from another one of the plurality of peer nodes.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of peer nodes is further configured to:

receive a peer-to-peer message comprising another email message from another one of the plurality of peer nodes;

extract the other email message from the peer-to-peer message received from the other peer node; and

provide the other email message to an email client of the one of the plurality of peer nodes in accordance with the email communication protocol.

11. The system as recited in claim 10,

wherein the one of the plurality of peer nodes is further configured to store the other email message to a data store;

wherein the email client is configured to access the one of the plurality of peer nodes to retrieve stored email messages; and

wherein, to provide the other email message to an email client of the one of the plurality of peer nodes in accordance with the email communication protocol, the one of the plurality of peer nodes is further configured to send the other email message to the email client of the one of the plurality of peer nodes in accordance with the email communication protocol in response to said access.

12. The system as recited in claim 1,

wherein the one of the plurality of peer nodes is further configured to store the peer-to-peer message to a data store;

wherein the destination peer node is configured to access the one of the plurality of peer nodes to retrieve stored peer-to-peer messages; and

wherein, to send the peer-to-peer message to the destination peer node in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol, the one of the plurality of peer nodes is further configured to send the stored peer-to-peer message to the destination peer node in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol in response to said access.

13. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of peer nodes is configured to receive the email message from an email client coupled to the peer node via the network.

14. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of peer nodes is further configured to send the peer-to-peer message to one or more others of the plurality of peer nodes specified as destination peer nodes of the email message in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol.

15. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of peer nodes are configured to implement the peer-to-peer environment on the network according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising the one or more peer-to-peer protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, to communicate with each other, and to share content in the peer-to-peer environment.

16. A system, comprising:

a network interface for communicating with nodes on a network, wherein a portion of the nodes are configured to participate as peer nodes in a peer-to-peer environment on the network according to one or more peer-to-peer protocols;

a mail transfer agent configured to;

receive an email message formatted in accordance with an email communication protocol;

determine one or more peer nodes on the network as destination peer nodes of the email message;

generate a peer-to-peer message formatted in accordance with one of the peer-to-peer protocols and comprising the received email message; and

provide the peer-to-peer message to the one or more destination peer nodes in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein, to send the peer-to-peer message to the one or more destination peer nodes, the mail transfer agent is further configured to send the peer-to-peer message to the one or more destination peer nodes via one or more pipes in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol, wherein the one or more pipes represent virtual communications channels for peer-to-peer communication with the one or more destination peer nodes.

18. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the email message comprises one or more destination addresses, and wherein, to determine the one or more peer nodes as the one or more destination peer nodes of the email message, the mail transfer agent is further configured to discover the one or more destination peer nodes according to a peer discovery protocol using the one or more destination addresses.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the one or more destination addresses include one or more email address formatted according to the email communication protocol.

20. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the one or more destination addresses include one or more universal unique identifiers (UUIDs) formatted according to a peer-to-peer protocol.

21. The system as recited in claim 16, further comprising an email client configured to:

generate the email message; and

send the email message to the mail transfer agent in accordance with the email communication protocol.

22. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the mail transfer agent is further configured to receive the email message from another of the nodes on the network in accordance with the email communication protocol.

23. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the mail transfer agent is further configured to:

receive a peer-to-peer message comprising a different email message;

extract the different email message from the peer-to-peer message comprising the different email message; and

provide the different email message to an email client of the system in accordance with the email communication protocol.

24. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the mail transfer agent is further configured to:

receive a different peer-to-peer message;

generate an email message comprising the different peer-to-peer message; and

provide the email message comprising the different peer-to-peer message to an email client of the system in accordance with the email communication protocol.

25. The system as recited in claim 16,

wherein the mail transfer agent is further configured to store the peer-to-peer message to a data store;

and

wherein, to provide the peer-to-peer message to the one or more destination peer nodes in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol, the mail transfer agent is further configured to send the stored peer-to-peer message to one of the one or more destination peer nodes in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol in response to the one of the one or more destination peer nodes accessing the mail transfer agent to retrieve stored peer-to-peer messages.

26. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the system is configured to participate as a peer node in the peer-to-peer environment on the network according to the one or more peer-to-peer protocols.

27. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the portion of the nodes are configured to participate as peer nodes in the peer-to-peer environment according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising the one or more peer-to-peer protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, to communicate with each other, and to share content in the peer-to-peer environment.

28. A system, comprising:

a network interface for communicating with nodes on a network, wherein a portion of the nodes are configured to participate as peer nodes in a peer-to-peer environment on the network according to one or more peer-to-peer protocols;

a mail transfer agent configured to;

receive a peer-to-peer message formatted in accordance with one of the one or more peer-to-peer protocols;

generate an email message comprising the peer-to-peer message from the peer node; and

provide the email message to an email client of the system in accordance with an email communication protocol.

29. The system as recited in claim 28, wherein the mail transfer agent is further configured to receive the peer-to-peer message via a pipe in accordance with the one of the one or more peer-to-peer protocols, wherein the pipe represents a virtual communications channel for peer-to-peer communication with peer nodes in the peer-to-peer environment.

30. The system as recited in claim 28, wherein the mail transfer agent is further configured to receive the peer-to-peer message from one of the peer nodes on the network.

31. The system as recited in claim 28, wherein the mail transfer agent is further configured to receive the peer-to-peer message from a peer-to-peer service configured to execute within one of the peer nodes on the network.

32. The system as recited in claim 28,

wherein the mail transfer agent is further configured to store the email message to a data store;

and

wherein, to provide the email message to an email client of the system in accordance with an email communication protocol, the mail transfer agent is further configured to send the stored email message to the email client in accordance with the email communication protocol in response to the email client accessing the system to retrieve stored email messages.

33. The system as recited in claim 28, wherein the system is configured to participate as a peer node in the peer-to-peer environment on the network.

34. The system as recited in claim 28, wherein the portion of the nodes are configured to participate as peer nodes in the peer-to-peer environment according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising the one or more peer-to-peer protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, to communicate with each other, and to share content in the peer-to-peer environment.

35. A method, comprising:

a node on a network receiving an email message formatted in accordance with an email communication protocol from an email client;

the node determining a peer node on the network as a destination peer node of the email message, wherein the peer node is configured to participate with other peer nodes in a peer-to-peer environment on the network according to one or more peer-to-peer protocols;

the node wrapping the email message in a peer-to-peer message, wherein the peer-to-peer message is formatted in accordance with the one of the peer-to-peer protocols; and

the node sending the peer-to-peer message comprising the email message to the destination peer node, wherein the peer-to-peer message is formatted in accordance with one of the peer-to-peer protocols.

36. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein said sending the peer-to-peer message comprising the email message to the destination peer node comprises sending the peer-to-peer message to the destination peer node via a pipe in accordance with the one of the peer-to-peer protocols, wherein the pipe represents a virtual communications channel for peer-to-peer communications with the destination peer node.

37. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein said determining a peer node on the network as a destination peer node of the email message comprises:

discovering an advertisement on the network using a destination address of the email message; and

obtaining information indicating the peer node as the destination peer node from the discovered advertisement.

38. The method as recited in claim 35, further comprising:

the node receiving another peer-to-peer message formatted in accordance with one of the peer-to-peer protocols;

the node generating another email message comprising the other peer-to-peer message; and

the node providing the other email message to an email client in accordance with the email communication protocol.

39. The method as recited in claim 38, further comprising:

the node storing the other email message to a data store; and

wherein said providing the other email message to an email client in accordance with the email communication protocol is performed in response to the email client accessing the mail transfer agent to retrieve stored email messages.

40. The method as recited in claim 35, further comprising:

the node receiving another peer-to-peer message comprising another email message;

the node extracting the other email message from the other peer-to-peer message; and

the node providing the other email message to an email client in accordance with the email communication protocol.

41. The method as recited in claim 40, further comprising:

the node storing the other email message to a data store; and

wherein said providing the other email message to an email client in accordance with the email communication protocol is performed in response to the email client accessing the mail transfer agent to retrieve stored email messages.

42. The method as recited in claim 35, further comprising:

the node storing the peer-to-peer message to a data store; and

wherein said sending the peer-to-peer message comprising the email message to the peer node is performed in response to the destination peer node accessing the mail transfer agent to retrieve stored peer-to-peer messages.

43. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the peer nodes are configured to participate in the peer-to-peer environment according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising the one or more peer-to-peer protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, to communicate with each other, and to share content in the peer-to-peer environment.

44. A method, comprising:

a node on a network receiving a peer-to-peer message formatted according to a peer-to-peer protocol;

the node generating an email message formatted according to an email communication protocol and comprising the peer-to-peer message; and

the node providing the email message to an email client in accordance with an email communication protocol.

45. The method as recited in claim 44, wherein said receiving a peer-to-peer message formatted according to a peer-to-peer protocol comprises receiving the peer-to-peer message via a pipe in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol, wherein the pipe represents a virtual communications channel for peer-to-peer communication with peer nodes in the peer-to-peer environment.

46. The method as recited in claim 44, wherein said receiving a peer-to-peer message formatted according to a peer-to-peer protocol comprises receiving the peer-to-peer message from a peer node on the network, wherein the peer node is configured to participate with other peer nodes in a peer-to-peer environment on the network according to one or more peer-to-peer protocols.

47. The method as recited in claim 44, wherein said receiving a peer-to-peer message formatted according to a peer-to-peer protocol comprises receiving the peer-to-peer message from a peer-to-peer service executing within a peer node on the network.

48. The method as recited in claim 44, further comprising

the node storing the email message to a data store;

and

wherein said providing the email message to an email client in accordance with an email communication protocol comprises sending the stored email message to the email client in accordance with the email communication protocol in response to the email client accessing the system to retrieve stored email messages.

49. The method as recited in claim 44, wherein the node is a peer node in the peer-to-peer environment on the network.

50. The method as recited in claim 49, wherein the peer nodes are configured to participate in the peer-to-peer environment according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising the one or more peer-to-peer protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, to communicate with each other, and to share content in the peer-to-peer environment.

51. A computer-accessible medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are configured to implement:

a node on a network receiving an email message formatted in accordance with an email communication protocol from an email client;

the node determining a peer node on the network as a destination peer node of the email message, wherein the peer node is configured to participate with other peer nodes in a peer-to-peer environment on the network according to one or more peer-to-peer protocols;

the node wrapping the email message in a peer-to-peer message, wherein the peer-to-peer message is formatted in accordance with the one of the peer-to-peer protocols; and

the node sending the peer-to-peer message comprising the email message to the destination peer node, wherein the peer-to-peer message is formatted in accordance with one of the peer-to-peer protocols.

52. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 51, wherein, in said sending the peer-to-peer message comprising the email message to the destination peer node, the program instructions are further configured to implement sending the peer-to-peer message to the destination peer node via a pipe in accordance with the one of the peer-to-peer protocols, wherein the pipe represents a virtual communications channel for peer-to-peer communications with the destination peer node.

53. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 51, wherein, in said determining a peer node on the network as a destination peer node of the email message, the program instructions are further configured to implement:

discovering an advertisement on the network using a destination address of the email message; and

obtaining information indicating the peer node as the destination peer node from the discovered advertisement.

54. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 51, wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement:

the node receiving another peer-to-peer message formatted in accordance with one of the peer-to-peer protocols;

the node generating another email message comprising the other peer-to-peer message; and

the node providing the other email message to an email client in accordance with the email communication protocol.

55. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 54, wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement:

the node storing the other email message to a data store; and

wherein said providing the other email message to an email client in accordance with the email communication protocol is performed in response to the email client accessing the mail transfer agent to retrieve stored email messages.

56. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 51, wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement:

the node receiving another peer-to-peer message comprising another email message;

the node extracting the other email message from the other peer-to-peer message; and

the node providing the other email message to an email client in accordance with the email communication protocol.

57. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 56, wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement:

the node storing the other email message to a data store; and

wherein said providing the other email message to an email client in accordance with the email communication protocol is performed in response to the email client accessing the mail transfer agent to retrieve stored email messages.

58. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 51, wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement:

the node storing the peer-to-peer message to a data store; and

wherein said sending the peer-to-peer message comprising the email message to the peer node is performed in response to the destination peer node accessing the mail transfer agent to retrieve stored peer-to-peer messages.

59. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 51, wherein the peer nodes are configured to participate in the peer-to-peer environment according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising the one or more peer-to-peer protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, to communicate with each other, and to share content in the peer-to-peer environment.

60. A computer-accessible medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are configured to implement:

a node on a network receiving a peer-to-peer message formatted according to a peer-to-peer protocol;

the node generating an email message formatted according to an email communication protocol and comprising the peer-to-peer message; and

the node providing the email message to an email client in accordance with an email communication protocol.

61. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 60, wherein, in said receiving a peer-to-peer message formatted according to a peer-to-peer protocol, the program instructions are further configured to implement receiving the peer-to-peer message via a pipe in accordance with the peer-to-peer protocol, wherein the pipe represents a virtual communications channel for peer-to-peer communication with peer nodes in the peer-to-peer environment.

62. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 60, wherein, in said receiving a peer-to-peer message formatted according to a peer-to-peer protocol, the program instructions are further configured to implement receiving the peer-to-peer message from a peer node on the network, wherein the peer node is configured to participate with other peer nodes in a peer-to-peer environment on the network according to one or more peer-to-peer protocols.

63. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 60, wherein, in said receiving a peer-to-peer message formatted according to a peer-to-peer protocol, the program instructions are further configured to implement receiving the peer-to-peer message from a peer-to-peer service executing within a peer node on the network.

64. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 60,

wherein the program instructions are further configured to implement the node storing the email message to a data store;

and

wherein, in said providing the email message to an email client in accordance with an email communication protocol, the program instructions are further configured to implement sending the stored email message to the email client in accordance with the email communication protocol in response to the email client accessing the system to retrieve stored email messages.

65. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 60, wherein the node is a peer node in the peer-to-peer environment on the network.

66. The computer-accessible medium as recited in claim 65, wherein the peer nodes are configured to participate in the peer-to-peer environment according to a peer-to-peer platform comprising the one or more peer-to-peer protocols for enabling the peer nodes to discover each other, to communicate with each other, and to share content in the peer-to-peer environment.