Method and system for preventing routing maelstrom loops of automatically routed electronic mail

• US 6,021,427 A
• Filed: 05/22/1997
• Issued: 02/01/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rao, Arun, Spagna, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Dung C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HO, CHUONG T
• Application Number:
  US08/859,940
• Time in Patent Office: 985 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.36, 395/673, 709/206, 709/4, 709/245, 709/232, 379/207
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

A method and system for preventing routing maelstrom loops of automatically routed electronic mail which is operational with intelligent agents and computer-processor hardware components, and includes a software based solution comprising a processor readable code of instructions. The code of instructions generally comprise a routine for tagging processed e-mail message with a system generated special identifying tag revealing each source subscriber, a routine for ascertaining whether a received message intended for automatic routing contains any special tag and a corresponding routine for deciding whether any of the special tags contain the current source subscriber'"'"'s identification before exercising any routing rules against the message. If the subscriber'"'"'s ID is listed in the particular e-mail being routed, then the system of the invention determines that a complete loop has been made and terminates further transmission since the next target subscriber has already received the message. Otherwise, the routing of the mail is executed.

Claims

1. An electronic mail (e-mail) message processing system comprising:

a plurality of remote stations and means for sending e-mail messages between the stations, wherein at least one of said e-mail messages comprises one or more levels of embedded messages;

an intelligent agent corresponding to a source user and responding to the receipt of e-mail message from said stations, said agent facilitating automatic delivery of said e-mail messages from said corresponding user to at least one predetermined target user in accordance with a set of rules provided to said agent by the user;

said agent inserting an automatic forwarding tag into said e-mail messages to identify that said e-mail messages is being forwarded automatically by said agent;

means, in communication with said agent, for preventing said e-mail messages from being sent from said source user to said target user more than once so as to prevent e-mail maelstrom loops, comprising;

means for detecting if said e-mail messages received by said agent has said one or more levels of embedded messages;

wherein if said one or more levels of embedded messages are not detected, then any said e-mail messages containing said automatic forwarding tag that corresponds to said source user are not forwarded to said target user; and

wherein if said one or more levels of embedded messages are detected, then each of said one or more levels of embedded messages is sequentially checked so that when an automatic forwarding tag is found and said automatic forwarding tag corresponds to said source user, said e-mail messages are not forward to said target users.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said preventing means comprises:

means for tagging said e-mail messages with an identifier tag corresponding to said source user; and

means for determining whether subsequently received e-mail messages contain said identifier tag to facilitate a determination of whether said e-mail message had already been sent to said target user by said source user.

3. A system as recited in claim 2, wherein said tagging means tags each e-mail message with said identifier tag prior to routing to target users and said determining means searches each received e-mail message for said identifier tag.

4. A system as recited in claim 2, wherein said identifier tag identifies said agent of said source user and said determining means allows said agent to search for said identifier tag.

5. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein said identifier tag identifies said agent of said source user and said determining means allows said agent to search for said identifier tag.

6. A system as recited in claim 2, wherein said preventing means further comprises:

means, in communication with said determining means, for identifying other identifier tags assigned to e-mail messages by other source user'"'"'s agents and for distinguishing said other identifier tags from said identifier tag.

7. In an electronic mail (e-mail) message processing system that includes a plurality of remote processor stations and automatically routes e-mail messages from a source user at one station to a target user at a second station in accordance with a set of rules provided by the source user and processed by agents unique to said source and target users, wherein at least one of said e-mail messages comprises one or more levels of embedded messages, a method comprising:

inserting an automatic forwarding tag into said e-mail message at said source user that identifies the e-mail message is being forwarded automatically by said agent;

preventing said e-mail message from being sent from said current source user to said target user more than once so as to prevent e-mail maelstrom loops comprising the sub-steps of;

detecting if said e-mail messages received by said agent does not have said one or more embedded messages detected, then any said e-mail messages containing said automatic forwarding tag that corresponds to said current source user are not forwarded to said target user; and

detecting if said e-mail messages received by said agent does have said one or more levels of embedded messages detected, then each of said one or more levels of embedded messages is sequentially checked so that when an automatic forwarding tag is found and said automatic forwarding tag corresponds to said current source user, said e-mail messages are not forward to said target users.

8. In an electronic mail (e-mail) message processing system that includes a plurality of remote processor stations and automatically routes e-mail messages from a source user (a user which transmits an e-mail message) at one station to a target user (a user which receives an e-mail message) at a second station in accordance with a set of rules provided by the source user, wherein at least one of said e-mail messages comprises one or more levels of embedded messages, an article of manufacture comprising:

an intelligent agent corresponding to a source user and responding to the receipt of e-mail messages from the remote processor stations, said agent facilitating automatic delivery of said e-mail messages from said source user to at least one predetermined target user in accordance with a set of rules provided to the agent by the user;

said agent inserting an automatic forwarding tag into said e-mail message to identify that the e-mail message is being forwarded automatically by said agent;

means, in communication with said agent, for preventing e-mail messages from being sent from said source user to said target users more than once so as to prevent e-mail maelstrom loops comprising;

means for detecting if said e-mail messages received by said agent has said one or more levels of embedded messages;

wherein if said one or more levels of embedded messages are not detected then any said e-mail messages containing said automatic forwarding tag that corresponds to said source user are not forwarded to said target user; and

wherein if said one or more levels of embedded messages are detected, then each of said one or more levels of embedded messages is sequentially checked so that when an automatic forwarding tag is found and said automatic forwarding tag corresponds to said source user, said e-mail messages are not forward to said target users.

9. A system as recited in claim 8, further comprising means, in communication with said preventing means and said communicating means, for selectively directing said agent to route said e-mail messages to the target user in accordance with the set of rules provided by the source user and in response to said preventing means.

10. A system as recited in claim 9, wherein said preventing means comprises:

means for selectively tagging said e-mail messages with an identifier tag corresponding to said source user prior to routing to said target user; and

means for searching subsequently received e-mail messages for said identifier tag to facilitate a determination of whether said e-mail message had already been sent to said target user by said source user.

11. A system as recited in claim 10, wherein said identifier tag identifies said agent and said searching means allows said agent to search for said identifier tag.

12. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein said preventing means further comprises:

means, in communication with said determining means, for identifying other identifier tags assigned to e-mail messages by other source user'"'"'s agents and for distinguishing said other identifier tags from said identifier tag.

13. In an electronic mail (e-mail) message processing system that includes a plurality of remote processor stations and automatically routes e-mail messages from a source user (a user which transmits an e-mail message) at one station to a target user (a user which receives an e-mail message) at a second station in accordance with a set of rules provided by the source user, said e-mail messages being processed by an intelligent agent corresponding to the source user and responding to the receipt of e-mail messages from the remote processor stations, wherein at least one of said e-mail messages comprises one or more levels of embedded messages, a computer readable medium of instructions comprising:

means for inserting an automatic forwarding tag into said e-mail message to identify that the e-mail message is being forwarded automatically by said agent;

means for selectively tagging said e-mail messages with an identifier tag corresponding to said source user prior to routing to said target user;

means for searching subsequently received e-mail messages for said identifier tag to facilitate a determination of whether said e-mail message had already been sent to said target user by said source user; and

means, in communication with said searching means, for selectively directing said agent to route said e-mail messages to the target user when said identifier tag is absent from said e-mail messages, said directing means operating in accordance with the set of rules provided by the source user and in response to said searching means, comprising;

means for detecting if said e-mail messages received by said agent has said one or more levels of embedded messages;

wherein if said one or more levels of embedded messages are not detected, then any said e-mail messages containing said automatic forwarding tag that corresponds to said source user are not forwarded to said target user; and

wherein if said one or more levels of embedded messages are detected, then each of said one or more levels of embedded messages is sequentially checked so that when an automatic forwarding tag is found and said automatic forwarding tag corresponds to said source user, said e-mail messages are not forward to said target users.

14. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein said identifier tag identifies said agent and said searching means allows said agent to search for said identifier tag.

15. A system as recited in claim 14, wherein said directing means selectively activates a trigger authorizing routing of the e-mail messages.