Systems and methods for governing the performance of high volume electronic mail delivery
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for governing the delivery rate of electronic mail (email) messages, said method comprising:
- identifying one or more email messages to be delivered to a plurality of recipients;
maintaining a plurality of mail transfer agents (MTAs) that are capable of delivering the email messages simultaneously;
initiating delivery of the email messages to the plurality of recipients by allocating the email messages among the plurality of MTAs;
monitoring delivery efficiency of said email messages based on the performance of the plurality of MTAs during delivery of the email messages;
determining a target delivery rate for said email messages; and
controlling the rate of the email delivery based on the delivery efficiency and the target delivery rate of said MTAs by increasing a number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency of the email messages is below the target delivery rate and decreasing the number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency is above the target delivery rate.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for governing the delivery rate of electronic mail (email) messages, said method comprising providing for the delivery of email messages, controlling the rate of the delivery based on delivery efficiency and a target delivery rate, and wherein the delivery efficiency is based on the performance of a plurality of mail transfer agents (MTAs) that are capable of delivering email simultaneously.
-
Citations
38 Claims
-
1. A method for governing the delivery rate of electronic mail (email) messages, said method comprising:
-
identifying one or more email messages to be delivered to a plurality of recipients; maintaining a plurality of mail transfer agents (MTAs) that are capable of delivering the email messages simultaneously; initiating delivery of the email messages to the plurality of recipients by allocating the email messages among the plurality of MTAs; monitoring delivery efficiency of said email messages based on the performance of the plurality of MTAs during delivery of the email messages; determining a target delivery rate for said email messages; and controlling the rate of the email delivery based on the delivery efficiency and the target delivery rate of said MTAs by increasing a number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency of the email messages is below the target delivery rate and decreasing the number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency is above the target delivery rate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method for governing the delivery rate of electronic mail (email) messages, said method comprising:
-
identifying one or more email messages to be delivered to a plurality of recipients; maintaining a plurality of mail transfer agents (MTAs) that are capable of delivering the email messages simultaneously; initiating delivery of the email messages to the plurality of recipients by allocating the email messages among the plurality of MTAs; continuously tracking over time delivery efficiency for the plurality of MTAs during delivery of the email messages; determining a target delivery rate for said email messages; and periodically adjusting the rate of the email delivery based on the delivery efficiency and the target delivery rate of said MTAs by increasing a number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency of the email messages is below the target delivery rate and decreasing the number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency is above the target delivery rate. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A method for governing the delivery rate of electronic mail (email) messages, said method comprising:
-
identifying one or more email messages to be delivered to a plurality of recipients; maintaining a plurality of mail transfer agents (MTAs) that are capable of delivering the email messages simultaneously; initiating delivery of the email messages to the plurality of recipients by allocating the email messages among the plurality of MTAs; controlling the rate of the email delivery based on delivery efficiency and target delivery rate of said MTAs by increasing a number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency of the email messages is below the target delivery rate and decreasing the number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency is above the target delivery rate; maintaining an email message retry limit; detecting failure of the delivery to one or more of the plurality of recipients; repeating delivery attempts based on the email message retry limit; and automatically adjusting a email message retry limit for the plurality of MTAs to reduce delivery failure rate of said email messages by reducing resources spent on the recipients for which delivery attempts have failed. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which instructions when executed by one or more processors cause a system to:
-
identify one or more email messages to be delivered to a plurality of recipients; maintain a plurality of mail transfer agents (MTAs) that are capable of delivering the email messages simultaneously; initiate delivery of the email messages to the plurality of recipients by allocating the email messages among the plurality of MTAs; monitor delivery efficiency of said email messages based on the performance of the plurality of MTAs during delivery of the email messages; determine a target delivery rate for said email messages; and control the rate of the email delivery based on the delivery efficiency and the target delivery rate of said MTAs by increasing a number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency of the email messages is below the target delivery rate and decreasing the number of MTAs that are allocated for delivering the email messages when the delivery efficiency is above the target delivery rate. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
-
Specification