Mobile Email Client Conversation Cache Update Method
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Solution Overview
Problem
Updating conversations on mobile devices is inefficient due to the transfer of entire conversations, leading to increased time, bandwidth usage, and battery drain, especially over expensive and intermittent wireless networks.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize checksums to identify and transfer only new messages, allowing for efficient updates by comparing message identifiers on the client and server, and prefetching updates to minimize data transfer and battery consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If entire conversations are transferred to update mobile device, then conversation completeness is ensured, but bandwidth usage increases and update time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the new messages from the conversation data and transfers them to the mobile device, rather than transferring the entire conversation. This is achieved by comparing message identifiers between server and device to identify which messages are new, thereby reducing bandwidth usage while maintaining conversation completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
The conversation update process is segmented into identifying new messages versus existing messages. The system divides the update data into only the necessary new messages, transferring them separately from the conversation structure metadata, thus optimizing bandwidth usage while ensuring completeness.
2Reliability
If entire conversations are transferred to update mobile device, then conversation completeness is ensured, but update time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the new messages from the conversation data and transfers them to the mobile device, rather than transferring the entire conversation. This is achieved by comparing message identifiers between server and device to identify which messages are new, thereby reducing update time while maintaining conversation completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary comparison of message identifiers on the server side before transfer, identifying which messages are new in advance. This preliminary action prevents unnecessary transfer of existing messages, thereby decreasing update time while ensuring no messages are missed.
3Measurement precision
If update request is sent for each conversation, then individual conversation updates are accurate, but battery consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual conversation update requests into a single batch update request. Instead of sending separate requests for each conversation, the system consolidates the update operations, reducing the number of network transactions and thereby decreasing battery consumption while maintaining accurate updates for each conversation.
Solution Approach 2:
The update mechanism is designed to handle multiple conversations universally through a single request interface. The system can process updates for multiple conversations in one operation, making the update function multi-functional and reducing the overhead of individual request handling, thus lowering battery consumption.
4Measurement precision
If update request is sent for each conversation, then individual conversation updates are accurate, but bandwidth usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual conversation update requests into a single batch update request. Instead of sending separate requests for each conversation, the system consolidates the update operations, reducing the number of network transactions and thereby decreasing bandwidth usage while maintaining accurate updates for each conversation.
Data Source
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AI summary
A request to update a conversation is sent to a server. At least a portion of the conversation is stored on the client. The request includes a conversation identifier corresponding to the conversation, a first message identifier corresponding to a first message in the conversation, a last message identifier corresponding to a last message of the conversation, and a conversation metric of the conversation. One or more updates are received from the server, the one or more updates including one or more messages corresponding to the conversation.