STORE-AND-FORWARD MESSAGING CHANNEL FOR OCCASIONALLY CONNECTED MOBILE APPLICATIONS

• US 20080172467A1
• Filed: 01/12/2007
• Published: 07/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kuryata, Sergiy, Batoukov, Roman, Zintel, William M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,613,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/033 of the user plane, e.g. user's traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

Sending and receiving application or service data through an email transport for mobile computing devices occasionally disconnected from network connectivity. At a sending service or application, application or service data is intercepted from the application or service. The application or service data is packaged in an email message. The email message includes the application or service data within the email envelope and an identification of an application or service client to which the application or service data should be applied at a client computer system. The email message is sent through an email transport to a mobile client computer system which includes the application or service to which the application or service data should be applied. At the client the email message is intercepted. The data is extracted from the email envelope. The application or service client is identified. The data is routed to the appropriate application or service.

Claims

1. In a mobile network computing environment including mobile computing devices that may be occasionally or frequently disconnected from network connectivity, a method of receiving application or service data that is typically received via a network transport, the method comprising:

intercepting an email message, wherein the email message comprises application or service data within the email envelope and an identification of an application or service to which the application or service data should be applied;

extracting the application or service data from the email envelope;

identifying from among a plurality of applications or services the application or service to which the application or service data should be applied; and

routing the application data to an appropriate application or service as identified in the act of identifying from among a plurality of applications or services the application or service to which the application or service data should be applied.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein intercepting an email message comprises identifying an email message to a specific address, wherein the address is used to identify a mobile client computer system to which the application or service data should be transmitted to, further wherein the address is used to identify that the email message contains application or service data applicable to one or more of the plurality of applications or services.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying from among a plurality of applications or services the application or service to which the application or service data should be applied comprises referencing a given email property, wherein the email property acts as a networking port.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the given email property is a subject field.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the email through a standard email encryption protocol.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

verifying a signature used to sign the application or service data; and

decrypting the application or service data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein verifying and decrypting are performed using a WS-Security protocol.

8. In a mobile network computing environment including mobile computing devices that may be occasionally or frequently disconnected from network connectivity, a method of sending application or service data that is typically sent via a network transport, the method comprising:

intercepting application or service data from an application or service;

packaging the application or service data in an email message, wherein the email message comprises the application or service data within the email envelope and an identification of an application or service client to which the application or service data should be applied at a client computer system; and

sending the email message through an email transport to a mobile client computer system including the application or service to which the application or service data should be applied.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the application or service data is pushed from a server to the mobile client computer system.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the method is performed as a fallback method when another transport fails.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the another transport is at least one of http or tcp.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein a property of the email message is used to identify a service or application to which the application or service data should be applied.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the property of the email message is a subject field of the email message.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the property of the email message is used for multiplexing/demultiplexing purposes functionally similar to a networking port.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the application or service data comprises data from a Web Service.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising sending the email message using one or more standardized email encryption protocols.

17. The method of claim 8, further comprising, prior to packaging the application or service data in an email message:

encrypting the application or service data; and

signing the application or service data.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein encrypting the application or service data and signing the application or service data is performed using a WS-Security protocol.

19. The method of claim 8, wherein sending the email message through an email transport comprises sending the email to one or more standard email servers, the email servers requiring no specialized configuration to be able to transport the application or service data.

20. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions configured to perform the method of claim 8.