Selective Offline Instant Message Retrieval via Unique Identifiers
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing instant messaging systems face challenges in efficiently retrieving offline messages, particularly in mobile scenarios where bandwidth is limited, and users cannot selectively retrieve messages based on urgency or sender, leading to high signaling overhead and delays.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that allow users to selectively retrieve instant messages by using unique identifiers, such as Message-IDs or URIs, to request specific messages from a mail server, enabling optimized resource handling and minimizing signaling trips through the use of a single session for multiple message retrievals, even in low-bandwidth environments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users retrieve all stored instant messages when registering to the SIP network, then users can access all pending messages, but signaling overhead increases and retrieval delays occur in low-bandwidth mobile environments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary information (message summary and unique identifiers) from the complete message set and transmits it to the user device. Users can then selectively retrieve only the messages they need based on the summary information, rather than transferring all messages. This reduces signaling overhead while maintaining the ability to access complete message content when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The message retrieval process is segmented into two phases: first, a lightweight summary notification is sent containing message metadata and unique identifiers; second, users selectively request only the specific messages they need using those identifiers. This segmentation allows the system to maintain reliability for message delivery while reducing the signaling overhead associated with transferring all messages.
2Reliability
If users retrieve all stored instant messages, then no messages are left unread, but retrieval time increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and transmits only essential message summary information (sender, subject, timestamp) and unique identifiers to the user device. Users can immediately view this summary information without waiting for full message retrieval, reducing perceived retrieval time while maintaining the option to access complete messages later.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of retrieving all complete messages, the system performs a partial action by first delivering message summaries that provide sufficient information for users to make selective retrieval decisions. This partial delivery significantly reduces retrieval time while allowing users to obtain complete messages only when necessary.
3Reliability
If the mail server stores all instant messages for offline users, then messages are preserved for later retrieval, but network bandwidth is consumed and server resources are used
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and transmits only compact message summary data (metadata and unique identifiers) to offline users rather than storing and transmitting complete message content. This extraction approach preserves message availability on the server while dramatically reducing network bandwidth consumption during the notification phase.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of storing and transmitting full message copies to offline users, the system creates and transmits lightweight summary copies containing only essential information and unique identifiers. These summary copies consume minimal bandwidth while preserving the ability to retrieve complete message copies on-demand when users connect to the network.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4
AI summary
Retrieving messages stored in a mail server and pending to be retrieved by a user is disclosed. A summary of the messages stored in the mail server and pending to be retrieved by the user is received at a terminal device of the user (S31) , each message associated with a unique identifier. At least one of the messages to be retrieved from the mail server is selected on the basis of the summary of messages (S32) . From the unique identifier associated with the at least one message an identifier valid for retrieval of the at least one message is determined (S33) , and aretrieval request with the identifier valid for retrieval issent to the mail server (S34) . Upon receiving the retrieval request with the at least one identifier valid for retrieving the at least one of the stored messages (S41) , the mail server sends the at least one message towards the terminal device S (42) .