Email Aggregation Server Polling Time Gap Compaction
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Solution Overview
Problem
As the number of system users grows, the number of mailboxes that mail user agents (MUAs) need to poll for email messages increases, leading to potential over- or under-utilization of polling resources, necessitating efficient approaches for scheduling polling operations to maintain optimal resource utilization.
Innovation Solution
An email system with an email aggregation server that performs time gapped polling by determining time gaps between successive polls and time compacts subsequent polls by removing these gaps, using a scheduling module to divide polling intervals into subintervals for first and second type polls, and staggering polling operations for unsubscribed and subscribed mailboxes to distribute the load uniformly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the number of mailboxes to be polled increases to accommodate growing system users, then the system can serve more users, but the polling resource utilization becomes unbalanced with periods of over-utilization and under-utilization
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the polling operations by dividing mailboxes into different groups (e.g., groups based on mailbox ID ranges or priority levels) and polls different groups at different time intervals. This segmentation allows the system to handle more mailboxes without all of them being polled simultaneously, thus preventing resource over-utilization while ensuring comprehensive coverage for all users.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements periodic action by establishing different polling intervals for different mailbox groups. Some mailboxes are polled more frequently while others are polled less frequently, creating a staggered periodic pattern. This approach ensures that polling resources are distributed evenly over time, avoiding both over-utilization during peak periods and under-utilization during idle periods.
2Reliability
If polling operations are performed frequently to ensure up-to-date email retrieval, then email freshness is improved, but server load and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by tailoring the polling frequency to the specific characteristics of different mailboxes or user groups. High-priority mailboxes or those with more active users are polled more frequently to ensure timely email delivery, while lower-priority mailboxes are polled less frequently. This localized approach optimizes email freshness for critical users without unnecessarily increasing server load for all mailboxes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic polling intervals that can be adjusted based on system conditions, user activity patterns, and mailbox characteristics. The polling frequency is not fixed but adapts dynamically, increasing when email activity is high and decreasing when activity is low, thus balancing email timeliness with server resource conservation.
3Speed
If all mailboxes are polled simultaneously to maximize email retrieval speed, then email delivery speed is improved, but server overload occurs reducing overall system performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the polling process into multiple batches or waves, where different groups of mailboxes are polled in sequence rather than simultaneously. This segmentation prevents server overload by distributing the polling load across multiple time slots, while still maintaining relatively fast email retrieval through efficient batch processing and minimal gaps between polling waves.
Data Source
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AI summary
An electronic mail (email) system may include at least one email server having mailboxes for storing email messages, and a plurality of mobile wireless communications devices. The system may further include at least one email aggregation server for repetitively polling the mailboxes for email messages, and forwarding the email messages to respective mobile wireless communications devices. The at least one email aggregation server may determine time gapped polling of corresponding mailboxes defined by at least one time gap between successive polls, and time compact a subsequent polling of the corresponding mailboxes by removing the at least one time gap.