Method and apparatus for high volume e-mail delivery
First Claim
1. An electronic mail (e-mail) delivery system, comprising:
- a plurality of delivery queues for delivering e-mail to a plurality of destination hosts, the delivery queues being maintained on one or more processors;
a stream of messages, each message in the stream including a destination address for specifying a recipient of the message and a message body;
a routing processor for receiving the stream and routing the messages in the stream to one of the plurality of delivery queues based on the destination address.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A high volume e-mail "newspaper" delivery system contains, for each customer, a personal configuration file containing the information resources that the customer would like e-mailed to his desktop. The configuration file is highly customizable, allowing the end-user detailed control over the content, format, and timing of the delivered e-mails. The e-mail messages to be sent are hashed to multiple, parallel transmission queues based on their destination MX hosts. This arrangement of transmission queues significantly increases total e-mail output because multiple queues are simultaneously processing the e-mail transmissions. A unique job number is appended to each e-mail message as it is created. The job number is used by the system to identify and track the e-mail message through the system before it is transmitted, and if the message bounces, when it returns to the system.
467 Citations
46 Claims
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1. An electronic mail (e-mail) delivery system, comprising:
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a plurality of delivery queues for delivering e-mail to a plurality of destination hosts, the delivery queues being maintained on one or more processors; a stream of messages, each message in the stream including a destination address for specifying a recipient of the message and a message body; a routing processor for receiving the stream and routing the messages in the stream to one of the plurality of delivery queues based on the destination address. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 45, 46)
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10. A method for controlling electronic mail ("e-mail") delivery to a plurality of the destination hosts, comprising the steps of:
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routing outgoing e-mail messages to one of a plurality of e-mail queues, the routing being controlled such that e-mail messages with common destinations are routed to the same e-mail queues; delivering the e-mail messages in each queue to a destination host designated by the e-mail messages.
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11. A computer readable medium including instructions for operating a processor to deliver electronic mail ("e-mail") to a plurality of destinations, the instructions designed to perform the steps of:
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routing outgoing e-mail messages to one of a plurality of e-mail queues, the routing being controlled such that e-mail messages with common destinations are routed to the same e-mail queues; delivering the e-mail messages in each queue to a destination host designated by the e-mail messages.
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12. A method for controlling electronic mail ("e-mail") transmission, comprising the steps of:
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routing outgoing e-mail messages to one of a plurality of e-mail queues, the routing being controlled such that the e-mail messages with common destinations are routed to the same e-mail queues; initiating a delivery protocol for each said e-mail message in each said queue; waiting a predetermined period for acknowledgment of a successful delivery of the e-mail message; removing the e-mail message from the queue when the predetermined waiting period has elapsed. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of tracking electronic mail (e-mail) messages by an e-mail delivery system, the method comprising the steps of:
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inserting a code into a first e-mail message to uniquely identify the first e-mail message; sending the first e-mail message with the inserted code over a network to a recipient; receiving a second e-mail message containing the code; and matching the second e-mail message with the first e-mail message based on the code. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 43, 44)
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27. A method of tracking electronic mail ("e-mail") messages sent and received from a central mailing site to recipients on a network, comprising the steps of:
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inserting a code into a first e-mail message; sending the first e-mail message with the inserted code from the central site to the recipient via the network; receiving, at the central site, a second e-mail message containing the code; and matching the second e-mail message with the first e-mail message based on the code. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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31. A method for forming an electronic mailing for delivery to subscribers on a network, the method comprising the steps of:
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entering a record into a database for each of the subscribers, the entering step including the substeps of; selecting timing information indicating when the electronic mailing is to be assembled and delivered, selecting content information of the electronic mailing, and selecting formatting information of the electronic mailing; assembling the electronic mailing for each subscriber based on the record corresponding to the subscriber; and transmitting the assembled electronic mailing to the subscriber. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. An electronic mail (e-mail) delivery system, comprising:
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a plurality of delivery queues for delivering e-mail to a plurality of destination hosts, the delivery queues being maintained on one or more processors; a stream of messages, each message in the stream including a destination address for specifying a recipient of the message and a message body; a routing processor for receiving the stream and routing the messages in the stream to one of the plurality of delivery queues based on a sort criteria.
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Specification