EMAIL SYSTEM INCLUDING EMAIL AGGREGATION SERVER PROVIDING STAGGERED INITIAL FALLBACK POLLING AND RELATED METHODS

• US 20080256195A1
• Filed: 04/13/2007
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: TeamOn Systems Incorporated (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: KAMAT, Harshad N.
• Granted Patent: US 8,463,856 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

An email system may include at least one subscribed mailbox server having a plurality of subscribed mailboxes and sending a new mail indication upon receiving a new email message, and a plurality of mobile wireless communications devices. The system may further include at least one email aggregation server for polling each subscribed mailbox for email messages based upon receiving a respective new email indication therefrom, and forwarding the email messages to respective mobile wireless communications devices. The at least one email aggregation server may perform a fallback polling of each subscribed mailbox based upon not having polled the subscribed mailbox for a threshold fallback time, and stagger respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon startup.

Claims

1. An electronic mail (email) system comprising:

at least one subscribed email server having a plurality of subscribed mailboxes and sending a new mail indication upon receiving a new email message;

a plurality of mobile wireless communications devices; and

at least one email aggregation server for polling each subscribed mailbox for email messages based upon receiving a respective new email indication therefrom, and forwarding the email messages to respective mobile wireless communications devices;

said at least one email aggregation server performing a fallback polling of each subscribed mailbox based upon not having polled the subscribed mailbox for a threshold fallback time, and staggering respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up.

2. The email system of claim 1 wherein said at least one email aggregation server performs an initial polling of each subscribed mailbox upon start-up.

3. The email system of claim 1 wherein said at least one email aggregation server staggers respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up to have a uniform distribution.

4. The email system of claim 1 wherein said at least one email aggregation server staggers respective initial fallback polling times of distributed groups of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up.

5. The email system of claim 1 wherein each subscribed mailbox has a unique identifier (UID) associated therewith;

and wherein said at least one email aggregation server staggers respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up based upon the UIDs.

6. The email system of claim 1 wherein said at least one email aggregation server performs a first type polling unless a threshold time has elapsed since a last second type polling, and wherein said second type polling is more comprehensive than said first type polling.

7. The email system of claim 6 wherein the first type polling comprises an abbreviated polling for new emails;

and wherein the second type polling comprises a reconciliation polling of all emails.

8. The email system of claim 1 further comprising at least one unsubscribed email server not sending a new mail indication upon receiving a new email message;

and wherein said at least one email aggregation server polls said at least one unsubscribed email server periodically.

9. The email system of claim 1 wherein the threshold fallback time has a duration in a range of 3 to 10 hours.

10. The email system of claim 1 wherein at least some of said mobile wireless communications devices comprise cellular communications devices.

11. An electronic mail (email) system comprising:

at least one subscribed email server having a plurality of subscribed mailboxes and sending a new mail indication upon receiving a new email message;

a plurality of mobile wireless communications devices; and

at least one email aggregation server for polling each subscribed mailbox for email messages based upon receiving a respective new email indication therefrom, and forwarding the email messages to respective mobile wireless communications devices;

said at least one email aggregation server performing a fallback polling of each subscribed mailbox based upon not having polled the subscribed mailbox for a threshold fallback time, and staggering respective initial fallback polling times of distributed groups of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up to have a uniform distribution.

12. The email system of claim 11 wherein said at least one email aggregation server performs an initial polling of each subscribed mailbox upon start-up.

13. The email system of claim 11 wherein each mailbox has a unique identifier (UID) associated therewith;

and wherein said at least one email aggregation server staggers respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up based upon the UIDs.

14. The email system of claim 11 wherein said at least one email aggregation server performs a first type polling unless a threshold time has elapsed since a last second type polling, and wherein said second type polling is more comprehensive than said first type polling.

15. An electronic mail (email) aggregation server for polling a plurality of subscribed mailboxes on at least one subscribed email server for email messages, the at least one subscribed email server sending a new mail indication upon receiving a new email message, the email aggregation server comprising:

an aggregation module for

polling each of a plurality of subscribed mailboxes for email messages based upon receiving a respective new email indication from the at least one email server,

forwarding the email messages to respective mobile wireless communications devices, and

performing a fallback polling of each subscribed mailbox based upon not having polled the subscribed mailbox for a threshold fallback time; and

a scheduling module for staggering respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up.

16. The email aggregation server of claim 15 wherein said aggregation module performs an initial polling of each subscribed mailbox upon start-up.

17. The email aggregation server of claim 15 wherein said scheduling module staggers respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up to have a uniform distribution.

18. The email aggregation server of claim 15 wherein said scheduling module staggers respective initial fallback polling times of distributed groups of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up.

19. The email aggregation server of claim 15 wherein each mailbox has a unique identifier (UID) associated therewith;

and wherein said scheduling module staggers respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up based upon the UIDs.

20. The email aggregation server of claim 15 wherein said at least one email aggregation server performs a first type polling unless a threshold time has elapsed since a last second type polling, and wherein said second type polling is more comprehensive than said first type polling.

21. An electronic mail (email) aggregation method for aggregating email messages from a plurality of subscribed mailboxes on at least one subscribed mailbox server, the at least one subscribed mailbox server sending a new mail indication upon receiving a new email message, the method comprising:

polling each of a plurality of subscribed mailboxes for email messages based upon receiving a respective new email indication from the at least one email server;

forwarding the email messages to respective mobile wireless communications devices; and

performing a fallback polling of each subscribed mailbox based upon not having polled the subscribed mailbox for a threshold fallback time, and staggering respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up.

22. The email method of claim 21 further comprising performing an initial polling of each subscribed mailbox upon start-up.

23. The email method of claim 21 wherein staggering comprises staggering respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up to have a uniform distribution.

24. The email method of claim 21 wherein staggering comprises staggering respective initial fallback polling times of distributed groups of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up.

25. The email method of claim 21 wherein each mailbox has a unique identifier (UID) associated therewith;

and wherein staggering comprises staggering respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon start-up based upon the UIDs.

26. The email method of claim 21 wherein polling comprises performing a first type polling unless a threshold time has elapsed since a last second type polling, and wherein the second type polling is more comprehensive than the first type polling.