SMS Spam Filtering via Email Encapsulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The proliferation of spam messages in SMS communications poses a significant concern for mobile phone users, as existing solutions require costly infrastructure upgrades to implement effective filtering, necessitating a more efficient method to screen out unwanted SMS messages.
Innovation Solution
The method involves converting SMS messages into email format and routing them through email-based spam filters, where spam detection algorithms can identify and discard unwanted messages, preventing their delivery to recipients without requiring extensive upgrades to the SMS infrastructure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If SMS infrastructure is upgraded to implement spam filtering, then spam filtering capability is improved, but infrastructure cost and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses an email message as an intermediary carrier to transfer SMS content to email-based spam filtering systems. The SMS message is encapsulated in an email format, processed by existing email spam filters, and the filtering result is used to determine whether to deliver the original SMS. This intermediary approach allows SMS spam filtering without modifying SMS infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent leverages the universality of email spam filtering technology to serve dual purposes: continuing to filter email spam while also filtering SMS spam. By using the same email filtering infrastructure for both email and SMS messages (via encapsulation), the system achieves multi-functionality without requiring separate SMS-specific filtering infrastructure.
2Reliability
If SMS infrastructure is upgraded to implement spam filtering, then spam filtering capability is improved, but implementation cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows existing email spam filtering infrastructure to serve SMS filtering needs automatically. The SMS message is converted to email format and processed by the existing email filter without requiring additional SMS-specific filtering resources. The existing infrastructure essentially serves itself by handling both email and encapsulated SMS messages.
Solution Approach 2:
The email message format serves as an intermediary that enables low-cost filtering by routing SMS through existing email filtering channels. This avoids the need to build expensive new SMS filtering infrastructure and instead leverages already-deployed email filtering capabilities.
3Device complexity
If SMS messages are filtered using email spam filters, then infrastructure upgrades are minimized, but message format conversion is required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the message filtering process into distinct stages: SMS message reception, email format conversion, email filtering processing, and result-based SMS delivery decision. This segmentation allows each stage to be handled by specialized components, with the conversion stage being a simple format transformation that doesn't significantly impact overall processing efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The SMS message is converted to email format in advance of the actual filtering operation. This preliminary conversion prepares the message for efficient processing by existing email filters, allowing the filtering itself to proceed without format conversion overhead during the actual filtering moment.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and computer program products are disclosed for preventing the delivery of unwanted SMS messages, such as those containing unsolicited commercial messages or spam, in a communications network. More particularly, SMS messages are intercepted prior to delivery and at least a portion of the SMS message content is encapsulated within an electronic mail (e-mail) message. The e-mail message is communicated to an e-mail spam filtering resource in a data network, where spam screening/filtering algorithms are applied. The e-mail message is discarded at the e-mail spam filtering resource if the message fails spam screening. Alternatively, or in addition, the results of the spam screening may be returned with the original message for another network node to process accordingly. In any case, if the message passes spam screening, the original SMS message that is associated with the e-mail message may be delivered to/toward the intended message recipient.