Shadow Channels Filter Messaging Notifications
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large messaging systems face performance issues due to the broadcast of notifications to all users, including uninterested ones, leading to an N-squared problem that slows down the architecture and results in unwanted notifications being discarded.
Innovation Solution
Implementing shadow channels that allow only interested users to receive notifications by configuring each shadow channel to prevent transmission to unregistered user devices and broadcasting event notifications only to registered user devices when specific events occur within the channel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If notifications are broadcast to all users in a messaging channel, then all users receive notifications about events, but the number of notifications increases quadratically with group size, slowing down the messaging system architecture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides a large messaging channel into multiple shadow channels based on user interests or notification preferences. Each shadow channel handles a subset of users, reducing the notification broadcast scope from N users to smaller subsets, thereby decreasing the quadratic growth of notification processing load while ensuring each user receives relevant notifications.
2Reliability
If notifications are sent to all users in a messaging channel, then every user receives event notifications, but uninterested users receive unwanted notifications that are subsequently discarded, wasting system resources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent assigns different notification subscription characteristics to different shadow channels, allowing users to be segmented into channels based on their specific interests or roles. This ensures that each user receives only notifications relevant to their local context within the channel, eliminating the waste of sending notifications to uninterested users while maintaining comprehensive coverage for interested users.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the group size in a messaging channel increases, then more users can participate in the channel, but the number of notifications sent increases quadratically, creating an N-squared problem
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a new dimension of organization by creating shadow channels that layer over the existing messaging channel structure. Instead of organizing users in a single flat channel, the system adds a shadow channel dimension where users can be members of multiple shadow channels based on their interests, transforming the notification problem from O(N²) in a single channel to O(N×k) across multiple shadow channels, where k is the average number of shadow channels per user.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for notifying a subset of users of a messaging channel may include publishing one or more shadow channels for the messaging channel. Each shadow channel is configured to prevent transmission of an event notification to one or more unregistered user devices. The method may also include broadcasting one or more event notifications to one or more registered user devices when an event associated with the one or more shadow channels is triggered. The one or more registered user devices are subscribers to the one or more shadow channels.