User oriented penalty count random rejection of electronic messages

• US 7,228,331 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2004
• Issued: 06/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Wang, Bing
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng; David Y.
• Application Number:
  US10/838,581
• Publication Number:
  US 20060031507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,127 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1458 Denial of Service

Abstract

A method and system for managing electronic mail (email) based on a user oriented penalty count (PC) random rejection. The invention determines a threshold for a specific user and assesses a cumulative PC for usage of a resource that exceeds the user specific threshold. Different operating states are determined based on a status associated with the resource. In a normal operating state, virtually all sent email is processed. In a selective-rejection state, sent email from a user with a cumulative PC is rejected randomly, while others are processed. In a random-rejection state, sent email from a user without a cumulative PC is randomly rejected based on a resource usage factor and an adjustment multiplier, while sent email from a user with a cumulative PC is completely rejected. The user may be assigned an exempt status that enables processing of virtually all email from the user independent of user'"'"'s PC.

Claims

1. A method for managing an electronic message, comprising:

determining a threshold based, in part, on an identity associated with a user;

determining a cumulative penalty count based, in part, on a usage of a resource by the user and the threshold; and

managing the message sent by the user, wherein the managing comprises determining whether to reject the message based, in part, on the cumulative penalty count and a status associated with the resource, and rejecting the message if the determination of whether to reject the message is affirmative.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identity further comprises at least one of an IP address of a client device and an email address employed by the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the cumulative penalty count further comprises:

assessing a penalty count based, in part, on the usage of the resource by the user exceeding the threshold, wherein the threshold is associated with at least one of a size of a message sent by the user, a number of messages sent by the user, and connection time of the user to a message server;

reducing the penalty count by a decay factor; and

accumulating the penalty count for each resource.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising assigning an exempt status to the user and exempting the user from receiving penalty counts for usage of the resource.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the decay factor is determined based on a time between two updates of the status and a predetermined retention period.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the status is determined based on at least one of a number of a maintained TCP connection, a number of messages in a queue of received messages, and an amount of used storage space.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining an operating state based, in part, on the status, wherein the operating state includes one of a normal operating state, a selective-rejection state, and a random-rejection state.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein managing the message in the normal operating state further comprises enabling virtually all sent messages from virtually all users to be processed.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein managing the message in the selective rejection state further comprises:

if the cumulative penalty count is about zero for the user, allowing virtually all sent messages by that user to be processed; and

if the cumulative penalty count is greater than about zero for the user;

determining a rejection factor base 4 in part, on the cumulative penalty count;

generating a random number; and

rejecting the message sent by that user based, in part, on a comparison of the rejection factor and the random number.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein managing the message in the random-rejection state further comprises:

if the cumulative penalty count is greater than about zero for the user, rejecting virtually all sent messages by that user; and

if the cumulative penalty count is about zero for the user;

determining a resource usage factor based, in part, on the usage of the resource;

generating a random number; and

rejecting the message sent by that user based, in part, on a comparison of the random number and a product of the resource usage factor with a predetermined adjustment multiplier for the user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein virtually all sent messages by the user are processed in the random-rejection state, if the adjustment multiplier is assigned a value of about zero.

12. A message server, comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive a message from a user;

a memory configured to store a threshold and a cumulative penalty count associated with the user; and

a processor configured to perform actions including;

determining the threshold based, in part, on an identity associated with the user;

determining the cumulative penalty count based, in part, on a usage of a resource by the user and the threshold; and

implementing a random rejection policy for the message sent by the user based, in part, on the cumulative penalty count and a status associated with the resource.

13. The message server of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the cumulative penalty count by performing actions including:

assessing a penalty count based, in part, on the usage of the resource by the user exceeding the threshold;

reducing the penalty count by a decay factor, wherein the decay factor is determined based on a time between two status updates and a predetermined retention period; and

accumulating penalty counts for each resource.

14. The message server of claim 12, wherein the penalty count is assessed for at least one of a size of a message sent by the user, a number of messages sent by the user, and connection time of the user to the message server.

15. The message server of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to determine an operating state based, in part, on the status.

16. The message server of claim 15, wherein the random rejection policy is implemented in a normal operating state by enabling virtually all sent messages to be processed.

17. The message server of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to implement the random rejection policy in a selective-rejection state by performing actions including:

if the cumulative penalty count is about zero for the user, enabling virtually all sent messages by that user to be processed; and

if the cumulative penalty count is greater than about zero for the user;

determining a rejection factor based, in part, on the cumulative penalty count;

generating a random number; and

rejecting the message sent by that user based, in part, on a comparison of the rejection factor and the random number.

18. The message server of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to implement the random rejection policy in a random-rejection state by performing actions including:

if the cumulative penalty count is greater than about zero for the user, rejecting virtually all sent messages by that user; and

if the cumulative penalty count is about zero for the user;

determining a resource usage factor based, in part, on the status;

generating a random number, and

rejecting the message sent by that user based, in part, on a comparison of the random number and a product of the resource usage factor with a predetermined adjustment multiplier.

19. A machine-readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions configured to cause a computer to perform the actions of:

enabling a determination of an identity associated with a user and a threshold for the user based on the identity;

enabling a determination of a cumulative penalty count based, in part, on a usage of a resource by the user and the threshold;

enabling a determination of a status associated with the resource; and

enabling implementation of a random message rejection policy based, in part, on the cumulative penalty count for the user and the status.

20. A device managing an electronic message, comprising:

a means for receiving the message from a user;

a means for determining an identity associated with the user;

a means for determining a threshold for the user based on the identity;

a means for monitoring usage of a resource by the user and determining a cumulative penalty count based on the usage;

a means for determining a status associated with the resource; and

a means for implementing a random message rejection policy based, in part, on the cumulative penalty count for the user and the status.