Sender- specified delivery customization
First Claim
1. In a computer network of heterogeneous nodes including at least one sending device and one or more receiving devices having potentially different capabilities for receiving transmissions from the at least one sending device, a method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly, comprising the steps of:
- associating sender specified policies with a particular communication for delivery of content to one or more said receiving devices;
receiving from a sending device the sender-specified policies associated with the particular communication for delivery of content to the one or more said receiving devices, wherein at least one of said receiving devices is distinct from the sending device;
breaking the transmissions into component parts;
determining handling protocols for the component parts; and
completing the particular communication for delivery of content to the one or more said receiving devices based on the sender-specified policies associated with said particular communication, wherein the component parts are delivered to one or more said receiving devices according to the handling protocols.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method that enables a given sending user to specify a set of delivery policies and have them used for the electronic delivery of a given message, the message potentially having several heterogeneous parts (e.g., text and pictures) each of which is handled differently, and delivered to multiple heterogeneous devices (e.g., PCs, Smartphones, fax machines), and possibly to several distinct recipients. The factors with which a sender can qualify their delivery policies include: time/date, transmission cost; whether the transmission can be forwarded; receiving device capability; and network reliability, speed, and security transmission. Methods are also provided enabling a sender to specify that particular transmissions be redirected or copied, e.g., “send fax copy to my broker and my accountant.” In one embodiment, the delivery policies may be specified using PICS.
633 Citations
58 Claims
-
1. In a computer network of heterogeneous nodes including at least one sending device and one or more receiving devices having potentially different capabilities for receiving transmissions from the at least one sending device, a method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly, comprising the steps of:
-
associating sender specified policies with a particular communication for delivery of content to one or more said receiving devices;
receiving from a sending device the sender-specified policies associated with the particular communication for delivery of content to the one or more said receiving devices, wherein at least one of said receiving devices is distinct from the sending device;
breaking the transmissions into component parts;
determining handling protocols for the component parts; and
completing the particular communication for delivery of content to the one or more said receiving devices based on the sender-specified policies associated with said particular communication, wherein the component parts are delivered to one or more said receiving devices according to the handling protocols. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
generating notifications of transmissions based on policies.
-
-
37. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 36, wherein the step of generating notifications, include sending a page.
-
38. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the content delivery policies include abstract terms referencing devices in logical groups.
-
39. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further includes:
enabling and including one or more digital signature(s) with the content delivery policies to verify authenticity.
-
40. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 39, wherein the digital signatures are enabled by using the DSIG 1.0.
-
41. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the content delivery policies include characterization of transmissions.
-
42. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further includes:
maintaining logs of all transmissions.
-
43. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further includes:
enabling and including one or more digital signature(s) with the content delivery policies to verify authenticity.
-
44. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further includes:
informing the sender whether and where the transmissions were redirected.
-
45. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further includes:
informing the sender of a failure to deliver a transmission.
-
46. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further includes:
retrying transmissions for a predetermined period of time at a predetermined frequency.
-
47. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further includes:
encrypting transmissions data based on the specified content delivery policy, before the step of communicating.
-
48. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further includes enabling a requester to specify delivery preferences.
-
49. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 48, wherein the method further includes defaulting to the delivery preferences specified by the requester, if the sender does not specify content delivery policies.
-
50. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 48, wherein the method further includes resolving conflicts between the sender specified delivery policies and the requester specified delivery preferences.
-
51. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 50, wherein the step of resolving conflicts includes automatically selecting to execute the sender specified delivery policies over the requester specified delivery preferences.
-
52. The method for senders to specify content delivery policies and to deliver content accordingly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computer network of heterogeneous nodes includes the Internet.
-
53. In a computer network of heterogeneous nodes including sending devices and receiving devices having potentially different capabilities, a sender-specified delivery customization system for enabling a sender to specify content delivery policies, comprising:
-
associating means for enabling a sender to associate one or more delivery policies with content to be communicated to one or more said receiving devices, the content to be sent from at least one of said sending devices;
means for communicating the content to one or more said receiving devices based on the delivery policies, a processor device for receiving a transmission including the content with associated delivery policies, the processor including means for breaking the transmission into component parts, and determining how each component parts should be handled;
wherein the sender is enabled to specify handling protocols for the component parts for delivery to at least one of said receiving devices which is distinct from said at least one of said sending devices, said processor further delivering the component parts to receiving devices according to the handling determination. - View Dependent Claims (54, 55, 56, 57)
a policy buffer for storing the delivery policies;
a data buffer for storing the content associated with the delivery policies; and
an instruction buffer for storing cross-reference indicator for associating the delivery policies with the content; and
a sender-specified delivery handler for analyzing the delivery policies and the associated content;
wherein the sender-specified delivery handler populates the policy buffer, the data buffer, and the instruction buffer according to the analysis.
-
-
55. The sender-specified delivery customization system as claimed in claim 54, wherein the sender-specified delivery handler further includes:
-
a policy reading handler for reading the delivery policies and writing the delivery policies to the policy buffer;
a data parsing handler for reading the content, parsing the content into data components and storing the data components in the data buffer;
an instruction determining handler for cross-referencing the data components in the data buffer with the policies in the policy buffer, the instruction determining handler further determining one or more delivery instructions associated with the data components; and
delivery handler for executing said one or more delivery instructions, wherein the content is delivered to one or more said receiving devices according to the delivery policy.
-
-
56. The sender-specified delivery customization system as claimed in claim 55, wherein the delivery handler further includes one or more threads running simultaneously, said one or more threads executing said one or more delivery instructions, wherein a plurality of the delivery instructions is executed simultaneously.
-
57. The sender-specified delivery customization system as claimed in claim 55, wherein the system further includes a database for storing the delivery policy and the content.
-
58. A computer program product embodied in a computer-readable medium for implementing sender-specified delivery policies in a computer network of heterogeneous nodes including at least one sending device and one or more receiving devices having potentially different capabilities, comprising:
-
computer readable program code means for causing a computer to associate one or more sender-specified delivery policies with content to be communicated to the one or more receiving devices, computer readable program code means additionally causing the computer to break the transmission into component parts, and determine how each component parts should be handled;
computer readable program code means for causing a computer to communicate the component parts to the one or more receiving devices based on the one or more sender-specified delivery policies and deliver the component parts to receiving devices according to the handling determination, wherein at least one of the receiving devices is distinct from the sending device.
-
Specification