Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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REPLY RECOGNITION IN CON~tTNICATIONS
FIELD
The present invention relates to a method of identifying
reply messages in communications .
BACKGROUND
Present status
In communications, in which messages are sent and received,
it is often necessary to assign the received messages to the
original sent messages. For example, one may send the
following question "How are you today?" and get the answer
IS "Good.". But if one sends many questions to many people at
one time and receives answers from them, it is necessary to
associate the questions and the answers to understand the
answer.
Existing solutions
The existing relationship between sent and received messages
may currently be achieved in the following three ways:
2S 1. Fixed connection
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There is a fixed connection between the sending and
receiving point. For example, one's computer is firmly
connected with the keyboard and with the display via cables.
2. Temporary connection
A temporary connection is made between the sending and
receiving point. For example, if one speaks to a person by
telephone, a temporary connection between the sendor's
telephone and the receiver's telephone is made and this
connection is removed after the communication is finished.
3. Message identification
Message identification is included into the sent message and
the same or a modified identification is included into the
received message. For example, if one sends an email, one
writes a message for this email and, in addition, writes a
subject reference in front of the text. The reference to
the subject matter is retv.urned to the original sendor in the
reply, which usually starts with "Re:".
Problem
The problem is what to do in the situations, when sent and
received messages are to be associated with each other and
it is not possible or desirable to use one of the solutions
1, 2, or 3 above. A typical example of the problem occurs
in mobile phone SMS messaging. In SMS messaging it is not
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possible to make any connection between the sending and
receiving mobile phones and it is also not technologically
possible to add any information to the existing SMS message
format.
SUNDRY OF THE INVENTION
New solution to be patented
1o Messages are sent and received via different identified
communication lines. For each sent message, the
communication line over which the message was sent is also
used for the reply, so that the reply can be assigned to the
original message.
1$
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
Further features and advantages will be apparent
from the following detailed description, given by way of
example, of a preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with
20 the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication
scheme with two sendors and recipient communicating through
an intermediary X.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE DRAWING
Algorithm
Referring to Figure 1, a sender, A, sends a
message to C through a communication system X, and the
latter forwards the message to C via line 1. When C replies
to this message, the communication system receives this
reply on line 1. Because the reply was received on the same
line as the original sent message, the communication system
recognizes that the reply belongs to A. For a person B, who
sends a message to C, the procedure is identical to that for
A except that the communication between X and C is on line
2. This system can be conveyed algorithmically as follows:
]5
Scheme (-> means message transfer here):
Sending person or computer -> communication system ->
replying person or computer -> communication system ->
sending person or computer.
Sending:
The communication system between X and the
recipients has n communication :Lines available, via which
messages may be sent and received. Each of these lines has
its own identification. There is also an (n+1)th universal
line
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S
The first message to a recipient person or computer is sent
via the first line.
The second message to a recipient person or computer is sent
via the second line.
...
The n-th message to a recipient person or computer
is sent via the n"' line.
Receiving:
When a reply from the replying person or computer
comes back to the communication system via the first line,
it is assigned to the first message sent.
When a reply from the replying person or computer comes back
to the communication system via the second line, it is
assigned to the second message sent.
When a reply from a replying person or computer
comes back to the communication system via the n"' line, it
is assigned to the n'~' message sent.
Clearing:
When a reply comes from a replying person via the
i"' communication line, all communication lines, via which
earlier messages were sent to this replying person or
computer (with some time reserve) other than the it'' line,
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may be released. The time reserve should be greater than
maximum time difference between receiving two messages, sent
at the same time.
Complements:
The following complements do not change the method
of this invention, which is reply recognition by sending and
receiving messages via n communication lines. However they
l0 describe and explain various situations in realizing this
method.
Connection
IS Instead of mobile phones, connected to the
communication system, also modems, SMS terminals or other
communication devices can be used. For direct connection of
the communication system to the operator various ways of
communication can be used, e.g. modems, Internet (WWW,
20 TCP/IP), fixed phone lines, etc.
Channel
The n communication lines can be also realized
25 using one communication channel, connecting the
communication system with the operator, e.g. with the mobile
phone operator SMS center. In this case, the single lines
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are identified by mobile phone numbers, which are sent to
the operator together with each message, in the sense "send
this message to the receiver vi.a this mobile phone number".
Different Realization of Sending and Receiving Lines:
The sending lines can be realized differently from
the receiving lines. For example, the sending lines can be
realized by connecting the communication system directly to
the mobile phone operator SMS center while the receiving
lines can be realized by connecting n mobile phones to the
communication system. The correspondence between the
sending and receiving communication lines is reached by
identical identification of corresponding lines, i.e. the i-
th sending communication line has the same mobile phone
number as the i-th receiving communication line. When
sending from the communication system to the mobile phone
operator SMS center, the corresponding i-th mobile phone
number is sent together with the message and it is this
mobile phone number via which the message is to be sent to
the receiver. When receiving using connected mobile phones,
the connected i-th mobile phone has the same mobile phone
number as the sending i-th communication line, so that the
reply to the message, which was sent via the i-th direct
sending line, is received via the i-th connected mobile
phone.
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Random Choice
When for each receiver the first message would be
sent via the first communication line, the second message
_5 via the second communication line, ..., the n-th message via
the n-th communication line, then the first communication
line would be by far the most used of the communication
lines, followed by the second communication line, and so
on... The n-th communication line would probably be used
rarely. For the purpose of speeding up the sending process,
a random selection of the communication lines can be used.
For one receiver, the available communication lines are
found. These are lines via which no message was yet sent,
via which the reply was received, and which were cleared for
IS sending. From these available communication lines one line
is chosen at random. The message is sent via this line and
sending via this line is remembered by the communication
system.
Insufficient Number of Communication Lines
The number of communication lines is always
limited, even in the case when a large number of
communication lines is available. For example, for SMS
messages, sent from one operator. to another operator, each
mobile phone number must have some physical destination
(like a SIM card) for receiving, which limits the number of
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communication lines used for reply recognition. So the
situation can occur, that all available n communication
lines were already used, such as for example, if messages
were sent on all these lines and no replies in response were
sent. In this case none of these lines would be free for
sending messages. This situation can be solved by seven
methods, either individually or in combination. The first
four of these methods have already been described in the
text of the patent application. The last three methods are
described here.
Communication Lines for each Receiver
For each receiver a table of n communication lines
can be created, in which the sender of each message is
listed for each communication line used. In this table the
identification (e. g. mobile phone number) of the first
sender is written to the field of the first communication
line, the identification of the second sender is written to
the field of the second communication line,..., and the
identification of the n-th sender is written to the field of
the n-th communication line. So for each receiver all the
communication lines can be available, which for the purpose
of reply recognition multiplies the number of n
communication lines by the number of receivers.
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IU
Clearing after Receiving Reply
When a reply is received to a message sent
originally from a receiver via the i-th communication line
(with some time reserve, greater than maximum time
difference between receiving two messages), the i-th
communication line can be made free for sending (to this
receiver). Moreover, all the communication lines along
which the messages to the same receiver were sent prior to
1U the message can be made free for sending,
Waiting
When all the n communication lines were already
used to send messages (to a receiver), then the
communication system does not send the (n+1)th message m(to
this receiver), but waits till at least one reply (from this
receiver) arrives.
Universal (n+1)th Communication Line
When all the n communication lines have already
used to send messages (to a receiver), then the universal
(n+1)th communication line is used to send the (n+1)th
message (to this receiver). Some formula such as "(start
Reply with Rj)", where j is some number, is included into
the text of the message and the receiver must start the
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reply with this formula. The communication system remembers
for each such sent messages the sender, the sending (n+1)th
communication line and the formula. When the reply arrives,
the communication system derives the sender from the facts,
that the reply was received via the (n+1)th receiving
communication line and that the text of the reply starts
with the formula.
Large Number of Communication Lines
Large number of communication lines (also 1000 or
even 1000000 etc.) can be available when the communication
lines are realized by connecting the communication system
directly to the operator. When a large number of
IS communication lines are used separately for each receiver,
then this makes the total available number of communication
lines for reply recognition practically inexhaustible.
Clearing Old Messages
All communication lines via which the messages
were sent some time ago, e.g. three days ago can be cleared.
Alternatively, these communication lines need not be
cleared. They can still wait f=or replies, however, they are
also marked as being available for sending, i.e. they can be
used for sending when no really free lines are available.
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12.
Round Method
The round (cyclic) method for sending messages
means, that for sending (to one receiver) consecutively the
15', 2"'1, . . . n-th communication line is used and after the n-
th communication line again the 1st communication line i=
used.
Insufficient number of communication lines:
When the number of messages sent to one replying
person or computer exceeds n (the number of communication
lines) and no lines were made free in the meantime, then
either the communication system must wait for some time to
send the messages to this person or computer (until at least
one reply comes from this person or computer; or until the
time period elapses, when replies to old messages are
improbable), or the communication system must include into
the text of the sent message a formula such as"(start reply
with Rj)", where j is the serial number of the message, sent
to this person or computer without having any free
communication lines. The message with the reply formula
will be sent by an (n+1)th "universal" line.
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1;
Remarks:
Communication lines, for example, may be realised
in the following two ways:
(1) by connecting n mobile phones to the
communication system, with each of these
phones having its mobile phone number
(2) by connecting the communication system to the
mobile phone operator_ SMS center using n different
lines, identified by mobile phone numbers.
The method makes pairs between sent messages and received
replies, i.e., assigns replies to the original sent
messages, i.e. returns replies to users, boxes and
applications.
Accordingly, while this invention has been
described with reference to illustrative embodiments, this
description is not intended to be construed in a limiting
sense. various modifications of the illustrative
embodiments, as well as other embodiments of the invention,
will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon
reference to this description. It is therefore contemplated
that the appended claims will cover any such modifications
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or embodiments as fall within the true scope of the
invention.
