Method and system for message retransmission and intersystem message delivery

• US 8,412,997 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2007
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced New Technologies Company Limited (Ant Group Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Qian, Zhilong, Cheng, Li, Li, Lei
• Primary Examiner(s): MASKULINSKI, MICHAEL C
• Application Number:
  US12/295,246
• Publication Number:
  US 20090300449A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,197 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 714/748
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/188 Time-out mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and a system for resending messages with a minimized number of retries and maximized timeliness of delivering the message to the receiving party. The method sets a retry period for a message that needs to be resent, determines a retry time according to the retry period, and sends the message after the retry time is reached. The retry period increases as the number of retries increases. The method and the system can ensure reliable delivery of notification messages and support many transmission protocols between different systems, does not require the receiving party to implement complicated interaction protocols to reliably receive a notification message, and is suitable for widespread use in the Internet. Moreover, the disclosure supports multiple transaction processing, can be used as a common business transaction application platform, and allows flexible expansion of multiple transactions and multiple protocols.

Claims

1. A method for message retransmission, the method comprising:

receiving a request for a transmission of a message for a notification;

transmitting the message;

determining whether the notification is successful;

in an event that the notification is successful, deleting the message;

in an event that the notification is not successful;

setting a time interval for a retransmission, the time interval increasing as a number of retransmissions increases,

updating a retransmission time for the retransmission to generate an updated retransmission time based on the calculated time interval, and

transmitting the message at the updated retransmission time;

receiving an addition request for one transmission of an additional message; and

transmitting the message and the additional message based on predetermined priorities associated with the message and the additional message respectively.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the determining whether the notification is successful comprises determining that the notification is successful if:

a returned result in response to the message is received, and

a format and a content of the returned result are valid based on a predetermined rule.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising obtaining a notification address, a notification protocol and a notification parameter that are associated with the message, and wherein the transmitting the message is based on the notification address, the notification protocol and the notification parameter.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the updated retransmission time is the time interval after a current time.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising abandoning auto-retry when a number of retries reaches or exceeds a preset value.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising abandoning auto-retry when the time interval reaches or exceeds a preset value.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the time interval has a variable increment as a number of retries performed increases.

8. A system of intersystem message notification, the system comprising:

a notification server configured to;

receive a request for a transmission of a message for a notification;

determine whether the notification is successful;

in an event that the notification is successful, delete the message;

in an event that the notification is not successful;

setting a time period for a retransmission, the time period increasing as a number of previous transmissions of the message increases,

update a retransmission time for the retransmission to generate an updated retransmission time based on the determined time period, and

transmit the message at the updated retransmission time;

receive an addition request for one transmission of an additional message; and

transmit the message and the additional message based on predetermined priorities associated with the message and the additional message respectively.

9. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the updated retransmission time is the time period after a current time.

10. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the notification server is further configured to abandon retransmission after a predetermined number of unsuccessfully retransmissions.

11. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the time period has a variable increment as a number of retries performed increases.

12. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the notification is not successful if a return message or a confirmation from a recipient of the message is not received.

13. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the notification server is further configured to:

determining an address and a transmission protocol of a recipient of the message based on a transaction type of the message; and

transmitting the notification message to the address using the transmission protocol.

14. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the system further comprises a database configured to store a plurality of messages, and wherein the notification server is further configured to:

periodically identify one or more messages that are due for retransmissions; and

resending the identified messages.