Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Distributed data processing – Processing agent
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-07
2003-12-02
Thompson, Marc D. (Department: 2142)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Distributed data processing
Processing agent
C709S206000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06658454
ABSTRACT:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to electronic mail (e-mail) systems and, more particularly, to improved methodology for processing an e-mail message sent to a predefined mailing list (specifying multiple recipients).
Today, electronic mail or “e-mail” is a pervasive, if not the most predominant, form of electronic communication.
FIG. 1
illustrates the basic architecture of a typical electronic mail system. At a high level, the system includes a mail server connected over a network to various e-mail “clients,” that is, the individual users of the system. More specifically, the system
10
includes one or more clients
11
connected over a network to at least one Message Transfer Agent (MTA)
12
a
. Communication occurs through a standardized protocol, such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) in the context of the Internet.
A typical e-mail delivery process is as follows. In the following scenario, Larry sends e-mail to Martha at her e-mail address: martha@example.org. Martha's Internet Service Provider (ISP) uses an MTA, such as provided by Sendmail® for NT, available from Sendmail, Inc. of Emeryville, Calif. (With a lower case “s,” “sendmail” refers to Sendmail's MTA, which is one component of the Sendmail® for NT product.)
1. Larry composes the message and chooses Send in Microsoft Outlook Express (a “mail user agent” or MUA). The e-mail message itself specifies one or more intended recipients (i.e., destination e-mail addresses), a subject heading, and a message body; optionally, the message may specify accompanying attachments.
2. Microsoft Outlook Express queries a DNS server for the IP address of the host providing e-mail service for the destination address. The DNS server, which is a computer connected to the Internet running software that translates domain names, returns the IP address, 127.118.10.3, of the mail server for Martha's domain, example.org.
3. Microsoft Outlook Express opens an SMTP connection to the mail server running sendmail at Martha's ISP. The message is transmitted to the sendmail service using the SMTP protocol.
4. sendmail delivers Larry's message for Martha to the local delivery agent. It appends the message to Martha's mailbox. By default, the message is stored in:
C:\Program Files\Sendmail\Spool\martha.
5. Martha has her computer dial into her ISP.
6. Martha chooses Check Mail in Eudora.
7. Eudora opens a POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3, defined in RFC1725) connection with the POP3 (incoming mail) server. Eudora downloads Martha's new messages, including the message from Larry.
8. Martha reads Larry's message.
The MTA, which is responsible for queuing up messages and arranging for their distribution, is the workhorse component of electronic mail systems. The MTA “listens” for incoming e-mail messages on the SMTP port, which is generally port
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. When an e-mail message is detected, it handles the message according to configuration settings, that is, the settings chosen by the system administrator, in accordance with relevant standards such as Request For Comment documents (RFCs). Typically, the mail server or MTA must temporarily store incoming and outgoing messages in a queue, the “mail queue.” Actual queue size is highly dependent on one's system resources and daily volumes.
MTAs, such as the commercially-available Sendmail® MTA, perform three key mail transport functions:
Routes mail across the Internet to a gateway of a different network or “domain” (since many domains can and do exist in a single network)
Relays mail to another MTA (e.g.,
12
b
) on a different subnet within the same network
Transfers mail from one host or server to another on the same network subnet
To perform these functions, it accepts messages from other MTAs or MUAs, parses addresses to identify recipients and domains, resolves aliases, fixes addressing problems, copies mail into a queue on its hard disk, tries to process long and hard-to-pass messages, and notifies the sender when a particular task cannot be successfully completed. The MTA does not store messages (apart from its queue) or help users access messages. It relies on other mail system components, such as message delivery agents, message stores and mail user agents (MUAs), to perform these tasks. These additional components can belong to any number of proprietary or shareware products (e.g., POP3 or IMAP servers, Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes, Netscape, or cc:Mail servers, or the like). Because of its central role in the e-mail systems, however, the MTA often serves as the “glue” that makes everything appear to work together seamlessly.
For further description of e-mail systems, see e.g., Sendmail® for NT User Guide, Part Number DOC-SMN-300-WNT-MAN-0999, available from Sendmail, Inc. of Emeryville, Calif., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Further description of the basic architecture and operation of e-mail systems is available in the technical and trade literature; see e.g., the following RFC (Request For Comments) documents:
RFC821
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
RFC822
Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages
RFC974
Mail Routing and the Domain System
RFC1123
Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application and Support
RFC1725
Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3)
RFC2033
Local Mail Transfer Protocol (LMTP)
RFC2060
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), Ver 4, rev. 1
currently available via the Internet at the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference. RFCs are numbered Internet informational documents and standards widely followed by commercial software and freeware in the Internet and UNIX communities. The RFCs are unusual in that they are floated by technical experts acting on their own initiative and reviewed by the Internet at large, rather than formally promulgated through an institution such as ANSI. For this reason, they remain known as RFCs even once they are adopted as standards.
Often when sending e-mail, a distribution or “mailing list” is employed to facilitate the process of sending an e-mail message to a group of people. For instance, instead of addressing an e-mail message to individual members of a recurring group, a user can instead simply define a mailing list to comprise those members. For example, the user could define a “Marketing” mailing list that specifies members of the marketing department of the user's company. Once defined, the mailing list can be used in the recipient field for an e-mail message, in lieu of listing individual members. A message sent to this distribution list goes to all recipients listed. Typically, e-mail systems provide graphical user interface facilities for managing (e.g., adding and deleting) names in a mailing list.
Expectedly, as a particular list grows larger, it becomes progressively more resource intensive and time consuming to manage and process. Although the foregoing example of a mailing list for a marketing department may comprise a comparatively small group of recipients (e.g., less than 100), a mailing list can in fact specify an extremely large group of recipients. Consider, for instance, a mailing list defined for customer support (e.g., “North American Users”) for a large software company. As another example, ISPs (Internet Service Providers) typically support many domains, many lists within each domain, and many users for each list. In such a case, a given mailing list may in fact specify many thousands or even millions of recipients, leading to an incredible amount of mailing list traffic. Accordingly, there is great interest in improving the management and processing of
Delany Mark
Kucherawy Murray
Sendmail, Inc.
Smart John A.
Thompson Marc D.
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