System and method for preventing unnecessary message duplication in electronic mail

• US 7,080,123 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2001
• Issued: 07/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Freed, Edwin Earl
• Primary Examiner(s): DINH, KHANH Q
• Application Number:
  US09/955,964
• Publication Number:
  US 20030055903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,762 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/218, 709/225, 709/227, 709/224, 709/223, 709/248, 710/5, 707/10, 707/1, 707/5, 705/14, 705/16
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

The system for preventing unnecessary message duplication in electronic mail forms a message digest of each message received. The message digest is then compared with stored message digests from previous messages to determine if there is a match. If there is a match, this means that the first and second messages are the same, and so the second message is discarded. If, on the other hand, there is no match, then the second message processed because it is assumed that it is a message that is a non-redundant message. The list of stored message digests is culled based on some predetermined criteria to ensure that it does not grow indefinitely.

Claims

1. A method for an email server to reduce the unintended duplication of messages forwarded to an email recipient, comprising:

forming a first composite message comprising a first email message sent by a client to the email server;

computing and storing a first representative value in the email server for said first composite message when the email server does not receive a confirmation from a client in response to a receipt message sent by the email server, the receipt message representing an acknowledgement for the client that the email server received the message in full;

forming, after said first composite message, a second composite message comprising a second email message;

computing a second representative value for said second composite message;

comparing said first and second representative values;

forwarding said second email message to an email recipient only if the comparison of said first and second representative values do not indicate duplication; and

discarding at least one stored representative value from the email server based on at least one predetermined criterion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first and second representative values are hash values.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said first composite message is formed prior to receiving said second email message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one stored representative value is discarded in a predetermined time after it is created.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one stored representative value is discarded when the list of stored representative values grows to a predetermined size.

6. A computer-readable storage medium having software code stored thereon, the code comprising:

code to form a first composite message comprising a first email message sent by a client to an email server;

code to compute and store a first representative value in the email server for said first composite message when the email server does not receive a confirmation from a client in response to a receipt message sent by the email server, the receipt message representing an acknowledgement for the client that the email server received the message in full;

code to form, after said first composite message, a second composite message comprising a second email message sent by the client to the email server;

code to compute a second representative value for said second composite message;

code to compare said first and second representative values;

code to forward said second email message to an email recipient only if the comparison of said first and second representative values do not indicate duplication; and

code to discard at least one stored representative value from the server based on at least one predetermined criterion.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the code to compute said first and second representative values comprises code to compute hash values.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the code to compute said representative values comprises code to form said first composite message prior to receiving said second email message.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the code to discard at least one stored representative value comprises code to discard such value in a predetermined time after it is created.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the code to discard at least one stored representative value comprises code to discard such value when the list of stored values grows to a predetermined size.

11. An email server platform having a program memory associated therewith, the program memory comprising software code configured to:

form a first composite message comprising a first email message;

compute and store a first representative value in the server for said first composite message when the email server does not receive a confirmation from a client in response to a receipt message sent by the email server, the receipt message representing an acknowledgement for the client that the email server received the message in full;

form, after said first composite message, a second composite message comprising a second email message;

compute a second representative value for said second composite message;

compare said first and second representative values;

forward said second email message to an email recipient only if the comparison of said first and second representative values do not indicate duplication; and

discard at least one stored representative value in the server based on at least one predetermined criterion.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the code to compute said first and second representative values comprises code to compute hash values.

13. The server of claim 11, wherein the code to compute said representative values comprises code to form said first composite message prior to receiving said second email message.

14. The server of claim 11, wherein at least one stored representative value is discarded in a predetermined time after it is created.

15. The server of claim 11, wherein at least one stored representative value is discarded when the list of stored representative values grows to a predetermined size.