Email Aggregation Server Staggered Polling
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Solution Overview
Problem
As the number of users in email systems grows, the number of mailboxes that mail user agents (MUAs) need to poll for new email messages increases, leading to potential over- or under-utilization of polling resources, necessitating efficient scheduling methods to manage this workload effectively.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of an email system with an email aggregation server that performs distributed polling, fallback polling, and time staggering of polling operations to ensure uniform resource utilization and efficient email message retrieval across multiple mailboxes, including initial fallback polling time staggering based on unique identifiers and comprehensive reconciliation polling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the number of mailboxes to be polled increases to accommodate growing user base, then email coverage and user service capability are improved, but resource utilization becomes unbalanced with periods of over-utilization and under-utilization
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the polling operation into multiple phases: initial polling, fallback polling, and reconciliation polling. Each phase serves a specific purpose and operates at different intervals. The fallback polling mechanism divides mailboxes into groups that are polled at staggered intervals, preventing simultaneous resource demands while ensuring comprehensive coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements periodic polling actions with varying intervals. Normal polling occurs at standard intervals, while fallback polling activates at longer intervals when no new mail is detected. Reconciliation polling performs comprehensive checks at scheduled periods. This periodic structure with adaptive intervals balances resource usage while maintaining email delivery reliability.
2Loss of time
If polling operations are performed frequently to ensure timely email retrieval, then email retrieval timeliness is improved, but server load and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic polling intervals that adapt based on system state and mailbox activity. The fallback polling mechanism adjusts intervals based on whether new mail has been detected recently. Active mailboxes with recent activity receive more frequent polling, while inactive mailboxes are polled less frequently. This dynamic adjustment optimizes the balance between retrieval timeliness and server load.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes polling parameters (intervals, frequency, depth) based on detected conditions. When no new mail is detected for a threshold period, the system transitions to fallback polling with extended intervals. During reconciliation phases, comprehensive polling parameters are applied. This parameter adaptation allows the system to maintain effectiveness while reducing average resource consumption.
3Reliability
If comprehensive reconciliation polling is performed on all mailboxes, then email message completeness is improved, but processing time and resource peaks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments reconciliation polling into targeted operations rather than universal comprehensive polling. Reconciliation polling is performed selectively on mailboxes that require it, such as those that have undergone fallback polling or show signs of missed messages. This segmentation ensures message completeness for critical cases while avoiding unnecessary processing time for mailboxes that are already up-to-date.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial reconciliation polling rather than exhaustive polling to all mailboxes simultaneously. The system performs reconciliation on a subset of mailboxes at any given time, using sampling and selective validation approaches. This partial action approach achieves sufficient reliability for the majority of cases while significantly reducing processing time and resource peaks compared to comprehensive polling of all mailboxes.
Data Source
AI summary
An email system may include at least one subscribed mailbox server having a plurality of subscribed mailboxes and sending a new mail indication upon receiving a new email message, and a plurality of mobile wireless communications devices. The system may further include at least one email aggregation server for polling each subscribed mailbox for email messages based upon receiving a respective new email indication therefrom, and forwarding the email messages to respective mobile wireless communications devices. The at least one email aggregation server may perform a fallback polling of each subscribed mailbox based upon not having polled the subscribed mailbox for a threshold fallback time, and stagger respective initial fallback polling times of the subscribed mailboxes upon startup.