Delivering Messages in a Communication System

• US 20120296976A1
• Filed: 07/31/2012
• Published: 11/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Skype S.Ã R.L. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Heinla, Ahti, Kõnnussaar, Teet, Mandre, Indrek, Tepandi, Lauri
• Granted Patent: US 9,130,894 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

Message delivery systems and methods for delivering messages to a computing system are described. The system uses a message ID structure and a message ID database to allow a user to check whether he or she is recipient of a new message without having to contact the message server that holds messages to be delivered. The resource load related to users checking for messages is therefore left to a separate computing system, allowing the message server to dedicate its resources to the receiving and delivering of messages.

Claims

1. A message delivery system comprising:

a message server including one or more computer processors configured to;

receive a message from a sending computing system and generate a message ID in response to receiving the message, the message ID being generated to identify the received message, the message being intended for a receiving computing system;

cause the message ID to be pushed to a message ID database;

receive, from the receiving computing system, a request that includes at least some information contained in the message ID; and

responsive to receiving the request, transmit the message to the receiving computing system.

2. The message delivery system of claim 1, wherein message server is configured to cause the message ID to be pushed to the message ID database through the sending computing system.

3. The message delivery system of claim 1, wherein message server is configured to cause the message ID to be pushed directly to the message ID database from the message server.

4. A receiving computing system for receiving a message from a message server including one or more computer processors, the receiving computing system being operable to:

send a message ID query to a message ID database rather than to a message server;

receive the message ID response from the message ID database, the message ID response comprising information about message IDs stored in the message ID database; and

upon receiving the message ID response, determine whether the message ID response indicates that a message is ready for retrieval from the message server;

in the affirmative then to;

request, by sending a message request to the message server, that the message server transmits the message to the receiving computing system; and

receive the message transmitted from the message server.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein the message ID response contains a message ID that identifies a specific message at the message server.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein at least some message IDs include a message number indicating how many messages the message server has received for a given recipient.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein said at least some message IDs include message size information.

8. The system according to claim 5, wherein at least some message IDs include a global message number associated with messages intended for multiple recipients.

9. A method for handling one or more messages from a sending computing system, the method comprising:

receiving, at a message server, one or more messages from the sending computing system, the one or more messages being intended for a receiving computing system;

responsive to said receiving, generating, using the message server one or more message IDs identifying the received one or more messages;

causing, with the message server, at least one of the one or more message IDs to be pushed to a message ID database effective to enable the receiving computing system to ascertain at least some information contained in the one or more message IDs;

receiving, from the receiving computing system, a request that includes information contained in the one or more message IDs; and

responsive to receiving the request, transmit one or more messages, associated with the information, to the receiving computing system.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein said causing comprises at least:

the message server transmitting the at least one message ID to the sending computing system effective to cause the sending computing system to transmit the at least one message ID to the message ID database.

11. A method for receiving a message at a receiving computing system from a message server, the method comprising:

sending, by the receiving computing system, a message ID query to a message ID database rather than to a message server;

receiving, with the receiving computing system, the message ID response from the message ID database, the message ID response comprising information about message IDs stored in the message ID database;

determining whether the message ID response indicates that a message is ready for retrieval from the message server;

responsive to a message being ready for retrieval, sending a message request to the message server to request the message; and

receiving, from the message server, the message.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein said sending a message request is performed only if the receiving computing system has not previously requested and received the message.

13. A method according to claim 11, the method further comprising storing at the receiving computing system, upon receiving the message, a message ID associated with the message, the message ID identifying the message on the message server.

14. A method according to claim 13 further comprising sending a message request to the message server if a message ID is not available to the receiving computing system.

15. A computer program product comprising:

computer readable code stored on a computer readable hardware storage medium configured to be executed by at least one computer processor to facilitate handling of one or more messages from a sending computer system having one or more computer processors by;

responding to receiving the one or more messages transmitted from the sending

computing system, by generating from a message server one or more message IDs

identifying the received one or more messages, the one or more messages being intended for a receiving computing system;

causing, from the message server, at least one of the one or more message IDs to be pushed to a message ID database;

receiving, from the receiving computing system, a request that includes at least some information contained in at least one of said one or more message IDs; and

responsive to receiving the request, transmitting a corresponding message to the receiving computing system.

16. A computer program product according to claim 15 wherein the message ID database is a distributed database.

17. A computer program product according to claim 15 wherein the message ID database and the message server are mutually resource-independent.

18. A computer program product comprising:

computer readable code stored on a computer readable hardware storage medium configured to be executed by at least one computer processor to facilitate handling of one or more messages from a receiving computing system having one or more computer processors by;

sending, by the receiving computing system, a message ID query to a message ID database rather than to a message server, the message ID database being configured to store message IDs and to transmit a message ID response to the receiving computing system in response to receiving the message ID query, the message ID response comprising information about message IDs stored in the message ID database;

receiving, at the receiving computing system, the message ID response from the message ID database, the message ID response comprising information about message IDs stored in the message ID database;

determining, at the receiving computing system, whether the message ID response indicates that a message is ready for retrieval from the message server, the message server being configured to transmit the message to the receiving computing system in response to receiving a message request from the receiving computing system; and

if a message is ready for retrieval from the message server, then;

sending, by the receiving computing system, a message request to the message server to request the message; and

receiving, by the receiving computing system, the message from the message server.

19. A system according to claim 18 wherein the message ID database is a distributed database.

20. A system according to claim 18 wherein the message ID and the message server are mutually resource-independent.