DYNAMICAL ROUTING FOR TEXT MESSAGING

• US 20090138563A1
• Filed: 11/28/2007
• Published: 05/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhu, Tong, Ho, Kenneth Tsz
• Granted Patent: US 7,941,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Routing text messages. A mobile message (MM) is received from an application program or other message source, and includes a destination identifier, such as a phone number. Based on the destination identifier, a routing server determines whether the MM is to be locally routed to a destination carrier, or forwarded to a remote server that provides access to the destination carrier. For local routing, the routing server determines a channel to the carrier based on predefined carrier information, the destination user information, and the carrier gateway dynamic information. The predefined carrier information indicates predicted availability or reliability of each of a plurality of channels to the carrier. The destination user information indicates availability of the destination user to receive messages, and includes a destination user criterion for determining one of the channels. The carrier gateway dynamic information indicates current and statistical traffic information for each of the channels.

Claims

1. A method for determining a route to send a message over an electronic network, comprising:

receiving a message that identifies a destination identifier, wherein a body of the message is limited to a predefined size;

determining a carrier to which to route the message based on the destination identifier, if the destination identifier indicates a local carrier that currently provides messaging services to a destination device associated with the destination identifier;

accessing predefined carrier routing information that indicates availability of each of a plurality of channels to the determined carrier;

accessing destination user information that is associated with the destination identifier and a destination user, wherein the destination user information indicates availability of the destination user to receive messages, and includes a destination user criterion for determining one of the plurality of channels through which to send the message to the determined carrier for routing to the destination device;

accessing carrier gateway dynamic information that indicates current and statistical traffic information for each of the plurality of channels to the determined carrier; and

selecting one of the plurality of channels based on the predefined carrier information, the destination user information, and the carrier gateway dynamic information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is received from a remote routing server which determined that the destination identifier indicates a carrier that is not currently associated with the destination identifier to provide messaging services to a destination device identified by the destination identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is received from an application interface for managing communication with an application program available through a network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is received from a client device and is addressed to a short code, wherein a body of the message includes the destination identifier, identifying the destination device for the message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination user criterion comprises a destination user schedule, indicating when the destination user is available to receive the message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the availability of each of the plurality of channels is based on:

predefined schedule data provided from the determined carrier;

prior traffic data for each of the plurality of channels to the determined carrier;

a first weighting factor applied to the predefined schedule data; and

a second weighting factor applied to the prior traffic data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising inserting content into the message based on an online behavior of the destination user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined carrier routing information comprises statistically determined availability of each of the plurality of channels, based on routing of prior messages to the determined carrier via each of the plurality of channels.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one of the plurality of channels comprises predicting the availability of each of the plurality of channels based on routing of prior messages to the determined carrier via each of the plurality of channels.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the message comprises a short message service message and the destination identifier identifies a mobile device.

11. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions for causing an electronic device to perform the method of claim 1.

12. A server for determining a route to send a message over an electronic network, comprising:

a processor;

a communication interface in communication with the processor, in communication with at least one electronic network, and in communication with a message source; and

a memory in communication with the processor and storing processor readable instructions that cause the processor to perform a plurality of operations, including;

receiving from the message source, a message that identifies a destination identifier, wherein a body of the message is limited to a predefined size;

determining a carrier to which to route the message based on the destination identifier, if the destination identifier indicates a local carrier that currently provides messaging services to a destination device associated with the destination identifier;

accessing predefined carrier routing information that indicates availability of each of a plurality of channels to the determined carrier;

accessing destination user information that is associated with the destination identifier and a destination user, wherein the destination user information indicates availability of the destination user to receive messages, and includes a destination user criterion for determining one of the plurality of channels through which to send the message to the determined carrier for routing to the destination device;

accessing carrier gateway dynamic information that indicates current and statistical traffic information for each of the plurality of channels to the determined carrier; and

selecting one of the plurality of channels based on the predefined carrier information, the destination user information, and the carrier gateway dynamic information.

13. The server of claim 12, wherein the message source determined that the destination identifier indicates a carrier that is not currently associated with the destination identifier to provide messaging services to a destination device identified by the destination identifier.

14. The server of claim 12, wherein the message source is an application interface for managing communication with an application program available through a network.

15. The server of claim 12, wherein the message source is a client device and the received message is addressed to a short code, wherein a body of the received message includes the destination identifier, identifying the destination device.

16. The server of claim 12, wherein the destination user criterion comprises a destination user schedule, indicating when the destination user is available to receive the message.

17. The server of claim 12, wherein the availability of each of the plurality of channels to the determined carrier is based on predefined schedule data provided from the determined carrier and is based on prior traffic data for each of the plurality of channels to the determined carrier.

18. The server of claim 12, wherein the processor readable instructions further cause the processor to perform the operation of predicting the availability of each of the plurality of channels based on routing of prior messages to the determined carrier via each of the plurality of channels.

19. A system for determining a route to send a message over an electronic network, comprising:

an intelligent messaging service that determines;

predefined carrier routing information that indicates availability of each of a plurality of channels to a carrier; and

destination user information that is associated with a destination identifier and a destination user, wherein the destination user information indicates availability of the destination user to receive messages, and includes a destination user criterion for determining one of the plurality of channels through which to send a message to the carrier for routing to a destination device; and

an intelligent routing module in communication with the intelligent messaging service and that performs a plurality of operations, including;

receiving the message that identifies the destination identifier, wherein a body of the message is limited to a predefined size;

determining the carrier to which to route the message based on the destination identifier, if the destination identifier indicates a local carrier that currently provides messaging services to a destination device associated with the destination identifier;

accessing the predefined carrier routing information;

accessing the destination user information;

accessing carrier gateway dynamic information that indicates current and statistical traffic information for each of the plurality of channels to the determined carrier; and

selecting one of the plurality of channels based on the predefined carrier information, the destination user information, and the carrier gateway dynamic information.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a criteria component in communication with the intelligent routing module and that determines whether the destination user information is to include a premium service criterion indicating a particular one of the plurality of channels.