Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
ALERT BROADCASTING TO A PLURALITY OF DIVERSE COMMUNICATIONS
DEVICES
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is
subject to
copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile
reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it
appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent files or
records, but
otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to communication systems and more particularly
to
systems for providing alert broadcasting.
Description of the Related Art
It is becoming increasingly important and desirable for societal authorities,
such as
municipal governments, universities, hospitals, the police, and security firms
in large
office buildings to be able to notify the people in the area under their
control of a
specific and unexpected danger. For example, if there is a school shooting, a
hostage-taking, a fire, a hazardous chemical spill, a gas leak, an Amber Alert
for a
missing child, or any other event where the danger relates to a person's
proximity, it
is crucial that the authorities be able to communicate with as many people in
the
area as possible in order to warn them, to give them instructions as to how
best to
avoid the danger, and how to avoid causing a diversion of the authorities'
resources
by becoming entangled in the initial danger or by creating a new peril.
Unfortunately, known systems, such as public radio or television broadcasts,
are
typically directed to a fixed and limited set of communications devices and do
not,
therefore, take into account the modern reality that people use of a variety
of
-1-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
different communications devices depending on the context. For example, in the
case of a school shooting at a university, the police or university security
service may
broadcast a warning via the university radio or television stations; however,
a student
studying in a quiet corner of a basement room of a campus library might not
receive
this warning, and might not be noticed by campus security or passers-by.
Unless the
student fortuitously encounters another person who has heard the warning, he
or
she might remain oblivious to a danger which is perilously close. Although the
student might possess some other means of communication (e.g. a cellular
telephone, or a laptop computer connected via WiFi to the school's network),
the
availability of such means are of little value if the authorities are not
equipped to
broadcast alerts through such communications means in an efficient and
reliable
manner.
There is, therefore, a need for a solution that provides for broadcasting
alerts to a
plurality of diverse communications devices, whether the devices are mobile or
stationary, through a plurality of diverse communications means. It would
include
means for identifying appropriate recipients in connection with each type of
communications device, such as by selection from a list or by determining each
recipient's presence in a particular area. The solution should be configured
to
maximally utilize the capabilities of any device type, but also take into
account the
limitations presented by any other device type, and specifically should be
capable of
transmitting images or documents when available. It would also be desirable
for such
a solution to be able to confirm receipt of the alert, to allow a response
from the
recipient to the broadcast source to give situational intelligence, and to
allow a two-
way discussion between the broadcast source and recipients to help direct them
through the emergency. Furthermore, it should not enable a new pathway for
"spam"
or other unsolicited or undesirable information to reach the user.
Such a solution would also be useful for community-oriented, non-emergency
situations, such as public announcement alerts in schools, from police about
traffic
situations, etc.
-2-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The within-disclosed invention includes a system which enables an authority
using
the system, such as a municipal government, a university, a hospital, the
police, or a
security firm, to broadcast an alert to a plurality of users who are using a
diversity of
communications devices, through a diversity of communications means, to
confirm
receipt of the alert, and to ensure that such does not create an additional
communications pathway for spam or other unwanted communication. The system is
adaptable to broadcast an alert to any desired communications technology
capable
of receiving and displaying messages, such as fixed or mobile IP-connected
devices
(e.g. mobile or stationary computers, handhelds, smartphones, etc), SMS/MMS-
capable devices, e-mail-capable devices, voice-capable devices (telephones,
radios,
etc.), or image-capable devices (e.g. televisions, monitors, smartboards,
etc.). Such
alert messages may include text, pictures, video, voice, or any other method
of
communications.
The invention enables efficient broadcasting of messages to a large number of
recipient devices, both mobile and stationary. Recipients may be selected by
their
presence in a list within a database, within a directory, within a set of
devices
associated with a wireless network controller or access point, or within a set
of
devices found to be located within a geographical region. Broadcast messages
may
be prioritized to indicate preferential delivery order. Reception of the
broadcast may
be explicitly confirmed by the recipient (e.g. by a DTMF signal, by an SMS/MMS
response, or by an e-mail response), or implicitly confirmed by the broadcast
client.
The invention may be found in a system for communicating a message to a
plurality
of recipients, each recipient being associated with a respective
communications
device, each device being a respective one of a plurality of device types,
each
device having a respective address. The system includes a dispatch module, a
delivery module, and a database. The dispatch module is for receiving the
alert
message, a specification of the recipients, and the device type of each of the
devices. The delivery module is for receiving from the dispatch module the
message,
the specification of the recipients, and the device types; the delivery module
is
further for receiving the device addresses based on the specification of the
-3-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
recipients; the delivery module is further for communicating the message to
the
devices, the delivery module having for each device type a corresponding
delivery
sub-module for communicating the message to the devices of that device type.
The
database is for receiving and storing the message, the specification of the
recipients,
an identifier for each recipient, the device types, and the device addresses.
The invention may also be found in a system for communicating an alert message
to
a plurality of recipients, each recipient being associated with a respective
communications device, each device being a respective one of a plurality of
device
types, each device having a respective address. The system includes dispatch
means, an agent framework, and a database. The dispatch means is for receiving
the alert message, a list of the recipients, and the device type of each of
the devices.
The agent framework is operatively connected to the dispatch means and
operates a
plurality of autonomous agents including a broadcast agent. The broadcast
agent is
for receiving from the dispatch means the alert message, the list of
recipients, and
the device types; the broadcast agent is further for receiving the device
addresses;
the broadcast agent is further for communicating the alert message to the
devices,
and has a corresponding pooled agent for each device type for communicating
the
alert message to the devices of that device type. The database is for
receiving and
storing the alert message, the list of the recipients, the device types, and
the device
addresses. In an alternative embodiment, the plurality of autonomous agents
includes a broadcast agent and a content delivery agent. The broadcast agent
is for
receiving from the dispatch means the alert message, the list of recipients,
and the
device types, and is further for receiving the device addresses. The content
delivery
agent is for communicating the alert message to the devices, and has a
corresponding pooled agent for each device type for communicating the alert
message to the devices of that device type.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
An understanding of the exemplary embodiments will be obtained from the
following
description, with reference to the following drawings in which:
-4-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary system employing
an
agent framework particularly configured for alert message broadcasting in
accordance with the present invention;
Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram illustrating components of the agent
framework
of the system illustrated in Figure 1;
Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram illustrating an agent pool management
framework employed by the agent framework illustrated in Figure 2;
Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a subset of the agents and
system
components involved in management of the agent framework illustrated in Figure
2;
Figure 5 shows a schematic diagram illustrating the components of the system
illustrated in Figure 1 involved in the management of subscriber accounts of
the
system;
Figure 6 shows a schematic diagram illustrating the flow of information
through the
system with respect to the content retrieval/forwarding service illustrated in
Figure 5;
and
Figure 7 shows a schematic diagram of an exemplary system for alert message
broadcasting to a plurality of different target device types in accordance
with the
present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
The advantages of the invention may be obtained through the exemplary systems
described hereinafter with reference to the drawings. Where appropriate, the
same
reference numerals are used in the drawings to indicate like features in all
of the
drawings.
-5-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Exemplary System Overview
The system provides for the prioritized broadcast of alert messages to
selected
groups of recipients and their communications devices. Recipient profiles are
maintained variously in databases, directories, and communications nodes
accessible by the system. These sources are queried for the identification of
selectable groups, which are then presented to a dispatcher (e.g. a system
administrator or other broadcast authority) for choosing the recipients. The
alert
message is then provided to a delivery module which employs a plurality of
included
modules each of which is configured to communicate the alert message to a
corresponding target device type. A response handler module then receives
responses from the target devices for later reporting.
The system also provides for the determination of a recipient's context and
the
processing of alert messages for the intelligent miniaturization or other
tailoring
thereof for the recipient's communications device or a set of designated
delegates'
devices, and the forwarding of the processed content to the target device(s).
Exemplary System Components
Figure 7 shows a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary system 710 for
broadcasting alert messages to a plurality of communications devices. The
system
includes a dispatch module 720, a delivery module 730, and a database 740; the
system may also include a key server 750 and a response handler 760. As
described hereinafter, the system 710 may interface one or more communications
nodes 770 (e.g. network wired/wireless switches and routers, and wired or
wireless
access points) and one or more external directories 780 (e.g. databases used
to
identify personnel and network-attached device identities in an
enterprise/campus
network, telephone directories, directories of client computer hostnames
configured
in a network domain, or distribution lists). The system 710 further
communicates with
a plurality of target communications devices 790. As described hereinafter,
the target
devices 790 may include any communications device capable of receiving an
alert
message from the system 710.
-6-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
The delivery module 730 may include or be associated with any number of
subsidiary modules (800, 810, 820, 830, 860) each of which is specific to a
particular
communications technology. For example, the delivery module 730 may include an
e-mail delivery module 800, an SMS/MMS delivery module 810, an IP delivery
module 820, a voice delivery module 830, and/or an HTTP delivery module 860.
As
described hereinafter, the delivery module 730 may be extensible to include
any
additional modules for further known, or as-yet unknown, communications
technologies and means.
Dispatch Module
The dispatch module 720 provides functionality for enabling a dispatcher (e.g.
a
system administrator or other broadcast authority) to formulate an alert
message for
broadcast, to select the intended recipients of the alert message, and to
select the
methods by which the intended recipients will receive the alert message. The
dispatch module 720, therefore, includes functionality for compiling
selectable
groups of recipients from a plurality of sources for selection by the
dispatcher. Any
means may be employed to present the dispatcher with such selectable lists, to
enable to dispatcher to select or to process such lists to facilitate
selection, or to
enable the dispatch module to make such selections automatically based on a
preconfigured set of selection criteria.
The selectable lists may include lists of subscribers who have previously
registered
or subscribed, or otherwise indicated that they wish to receive alert
broadcasts from
the system. For example, the system database 740 may store the particulars of
recipients who have previously registered to receive alert broadcasts, and the
system may include or interface with any suitable means for enabling such
subscription or registration by prospective recipients. The recipient
particulars stored
in the database may include only some identifier of the registered recipient,
or may
also include the addresses of one or more communications devices at which the
recipient desires to receive such alert messages, and may also include any
desired
delivery preferences (e.g. so as to specify an order of the recipient's
devices in which
the system is to attempt delivery of an alert message). In the case of such
registered
-7-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
recipients, the dispatch module 720 retrieves lists of such registered
recipients from
the system database 740 for selection, as discussed above.
Additionally (or alternatively, perhaps for efficiency purposes) the
selectable lists
may include any keys that are searchable in any of the database 740, the
directories
780, and/or the communications nodes 770. For example, the database may
associate subscribers with specific wireless carriers, specific e-mail
domains,
specific hosting servers, etc. A directory may associate subscribers, non-
subscribers, and/or devices (computers) with specific corporate groupings or
locations. And a communication node might associate specific devices with a
specific LAN, virtual LAN, wireless access point, etc. Such keys may specify
criteria
for identifying the recipients' devices as opposed to identifying specific
recipients.
For such purpose, the dispatch module 720 may poll, at the instantiation of
the
dispatcher, automatically on a periodic basis, or otherwise, one or more of
the
directories 780, and retrieve selectable lists of recipients. Such external
directories
may include telephone directories, a directory of client computer hostnames
configured in a network domain (which may further be organized in the
directory by,
e.g. location), distribution lists of recipients which may be cross-referenced
in the
database 740 to target device MAC addresses, phone numbers, hostnames, etc.,
or
subscriber directories provided by third-party service providers such as e-
mail
servers or Internet service providers.
Additionally for such purposes, the dispatch module 720 may also interface one
or
more communications nodes 770 accessible to the system 710 which are capable,
through such interface, of providing information regarding selectable groups
of
recipients not necessarily included in the system database 740 (e.g. who have
not
registered to receive alert broadcasts). In general, the system 710 may employ
any
known means to ascertain from the one or more communications nodes 770
recipients who are accessible via any of the means available to the delivery
module
730.
For example, one communications node 770 may be a network access point (e.g. a
WiFi/WiMAX network gateway, WiFi/WiMAX access point, or home/business cable
-8-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
modem or DSL interface), and the dispatch module 720 may poll that network
access point to obtain a list of MAC or IP addresses, or hostnames accessible
via
that access point. In the event that a device so identified is associated in
the
database 740 to a registered subscriber, the dispatch module 720 may also
retrieve
any other of that subscriber's device addresses (e.g. cell phone number, e-
mail
address) recorded in the database 740 for use in the selection of broadcast
message
target criteria. For example, an SMS alert might be sent to the cell phones of
subscribers whose mobile device (e.g. laptop or smart phone) is associated
with a
specific WiFi access point. Similarly, an IP-based alert might be sent to the
mobile
devices of all users associated with all reachable wireless access points
within a
specific radius of a geographical location (wherein the communication node may
provide geo-coordinates of each access point.)
Similarly, for recipients using devices in a logical or physical proximity,
such as
cellular telephones wirelessly connected to a given cellular network node (one
of the
communications nodes 770), telephones wires to a given distribution node (one
of
the communications nodes 770), or computers connected wirelessly to a WiFi
node
(one of the communications nodes 770), such nodes may be configured to
cooperate
with the system such that the system may query or poll such nodes for
information
regarding any target devices currently accessible via such node, including the
addresses of any such devices. Such recipient information and device address
may
be included in the selectable groups for selection in the dispatch module 720.
In
such case, an alert message may be delivered to all or a portion of such
devices
related by a certain logical or physical proximity to a given communications
node.
For example, in the case that the devices include cellular and/or land-based
telephones, then an alert message may be delivered by the voice delivery 830
module (and/or SMS/MMS Delivery 810 for, e.g. SMS/MMS-enabled cellular phones)
to all or a portion of such devices being serviced by a particular cellular
network
node or a certain land-based telephone network node.
The dispatcher, or the automated dispatch module 720, as the case may be, then
selects from the selectable groups compiled in the dispatch module 720 those
recipients or the characteristics of recipients to receive a broadcast alert
message.
The dispatch module 720 then transmits the list, the alert message, and the
targeted
-9-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
mobile device types in a data package or any other suitable form, to the
delivery
module 730 for delivery to the recipients' target devices 790.
For example, the dispatch module 720 may specify the characteristics of the
recipients as being customers of a specific wireless carrier in a specific set
of area
codes, with the target being their e-mail addresses. The e-mail addresses of
those
recipients are then retrieved by the delivery module 730 from the database
740;
where a recipient is to receive the alert message by SMS/MMS transmission,
then
the recipient's SMS address is retrieved from the network infrastructure of
the MAC
address of that recipient's device which is associated with a particular
access point
in the network infrastructure; where a recipient's device is connected via IP
to an
access point in the network infrastructure, then that device's IP address may
be
retrieved from the network infrastructure; similarly, the hostname for the
recipient's
device which is registered in a particular domain (e.g. in a specific
building) may be
retrieved from a directory; where a recipient's device is a telephone, the
recipient's
telephone number may be retrieved from a directory, including a particular
distribution list in the directory.
It is to be appreciated that the dispatch module 720 may further provide the
dispatcher to capacity to generate and dispatch alert messages from a location
which is remote to the system 710. For example, the dispatch module 720 may
additionally provide a web portal accessible via the Internet and a web
browser, or a
telephony interface accessible by calling a number, and further an interface
usable
by the dispatch to generate an alert message, compile a list of recipients as
discussed above, initiate the communication of the alert message to the
recipients,
and to receive and work with response reports (as discussed below).
Delivery Module
In general, the delivery module 730 receives the alert message, the recipient
characteristics (actual device addresses or one or more keys that are
queryable in
any of the database 740, the directories 780, and/or the communications nodes
770)
and the preferred target device type(s) (which may be included in a data
package, as
indicated above), as described above, from the dispatch module 720.
-10-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
If the dispatch module 720 provides only the characteristics of the broadcast
recipients to the delivery module 730, then the delivery module 730 queries
the
database 740, the directories 780, and/or the communications nodes 770 as
appropriate to obtain the device-specific address for each target device 790
associated with each recipient to receive the alert message.
As indicated above, the delivery module 730 may include or be associated with
any
number of subsidiary modules each of which is specific to a particular
communications technology. Such specific modules may include an e-mail
delivery
module 800, an SMS/MMS delivery module 810, an IP delivery module 820, an
HTTP delivery module 860, and/or a voice delivery module 830, and may further
include any other module directed to another different or related technology
or
communications means, channel or path. In such case, the delivery module 730,
upon receiving the alert message from the dispatch module 720, determines with
respect to each target device the communication and performance capabilities
of the
device. Such capabilities may be specified in the data package with respect to
each
recipient and, if the target device addresses are provided by the dispatch
module
720 in the data package, each target device. The delivery module 730 may,
alternatively, query the database 740, the directories 780, or the
communications
nodes 770, as appropriate, for such capabilities based on the recipient
information.
In general, each of the specific delivery modules 800, 810, 820, 830, 860 may
perform its functions through a pool of dynamically generated sub-modules or
threads. Furthermore, each specific delivery module may contain functionality
for
tailoring the content of the alert message so as to be receivable and/or more
suitable
for display by the target device types associated with that specific delivery
module.
For example, alerts sent by e-mail might be formatted in HTML with embedded
logos, attached images/videos/audio, or could be encrypted. Alerts sent by SMS
might be groomed to account for different wireless provider and/or device-type
capabilities (e.g. some require identification of originator in the body
because they do
not properly reflect the sender). Alerts sent by IP could contain text,
images, video,
or audio formatted for rendering on specific devices.
- 11 -
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
For communicating the alert message to target devices 790 capable of receiving
e-
mail messages, the delivery module 730 may employ the e-mail delivery module
800. If the particulars received by the delivery 730 module for any particular
recipient
does not include the recipient's e-mail address, then the delivery module may
query
the database 740, directories 780, and/or communications nodes 770 for the e-
mail
address(es) of that recipient. The e-mail delivery module 800 then transmits
the alert
message to each such recipient's target device 790 via an optional SMTP
Message
Transfer Agent or gateway 840 and via that recipient's e-mail server. The
database
740 may then be updated to record that such messages have been sent. The e-
mail
delivery module 800 may also generate a plurality of pooled sub-modules to
divide
such delivery tasks by volume, interface, or any other desired criterion.
For communicating the alert message to target devices 790 capable of receiving
messages through a network node generally (e.g. mobile or stationary computers
connected to a network access point), the IP delivery module 820 may query the
database 740, directories 780, and/or communications nodes 770 for hostnames
and/or IP addresses of the corresponding target devices 790. The IP delivery
module
820 will then transmit the message to the target devices 790, and may do so by
unicast/multicast/broadcast to client applications operating on the devices.
Unicast
transmissions may be performed via TCP-based handshake or other point-to-point
protocol (e.g. as are used by OnStarTM systems). Multicast transmissions may
be
performed via IP-based or other one-way point-to-multi-point transmission.
Broadcast transmissions may be performed via IP-based or other one-way point
to
all stations transmission. The IP delivery module 820 may then communicate an
update to the database 740 indicating the transmission of the alert message to
those
recipients. The IP delivery module 820 may also generate a plurality of pooled
sub-
modules to divide such delivery tasks by volume, relevant interface, or any or
desired criterion.
The IP delivery module 820 may alternatively, or additionally, communicate
with a
network service via a network gateway 870 (which may be one of the
communications nodes 770, or whose functionality is provided by one of the
communications nodes 770), wherein the network service subsequently sends the
message to non-IP-accessible target devices 790 over another communications
-12-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
protocol. For example, WiFi devices that are known to a WiFi access point but
not
authenticated to it are known as "unassociated devices". A client on such an
un-
associated device could be reachable via layer 2 communications methods in
order
to receive the alert message from the access point.
For communicating the alert message to target devices 790 capable of receiving
messages through a network node generally, but not configured with a
compatible
client (see below) (e.g. mobile or stationary computers connected to a network
access point), the HTTP delivery module 860 may query the database 740,
directories 780, and/or communications nodes 770 for hostnames and/or IP
addresses of the corresponding network gateways 870. The HTTP delivery module
860 will then transmit the message and recipient characteristics to the
network
gateway 870. The network gateway 870 then arranges to deliver the message to
targeted recipients using implementation-specific methods. The HTTP delivery
module 860 may then communicate an update to the database 740 indicating the
transmission of the alert message to those recipients. The HTTP delivery
module
860 may also generate a plurality of pooled sub-modules to divide such
delivery
tasks by volume, relevant interface, or any other desired criterion.
For communicating the alert message to target devices 790 capable of receiving
SMS/MMS messages (e.g. cellular telephones or smartphones), the alert message
may be handled by the SMS/MMS delivery module 810. This module may query the
database 740, directories 780, and/or communications nodes 770 for telephone
numbers or SMS/MMS addresses, and transmit the alert message to the target
devices 790 via an SMS gateway or modem. The SMS/MMS delivery module 810
may then communicate an update to the database 740 indicating the transmission
of
the alert message to those recipients. The SMS/MMS delivery module 810 may
also
generate a plurality of pooled sub-modules to divide such delivery tasks by
volume,
interface, or any other desired criterion.
For communicating the alert message to target devices 790 capable of receiving
and
playing audio recordings (e.g. telephones, public announcement systems), the
alert
message may be handled by the voice delivery module 830. This module receives
the alert message and, if the alert message does not already identify by
reference
-13-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
(or attach) a pre-recorded audio message, it converts the alert message into
an
audio recording including a voice message based on the textual alert message
using
any available text-to-voice conversion methods. The voice delivery module 830
may
query the database 740 (e.g. for subscribers' telephone numbers), directories
780
(e.g. telephone number directories, including distribution lists), and/or
communications nodes 770 (e.g. a telephone system node which may indicate all
telephone numbers accessible though that node) for the addresses of the target
devices 790 (e.g. telephone numbers), in the event that such addresses are not
provided by the dispatch module 720 in or with the alert message package. The
voice delivery module may then generate a plurality of pooled modules or
threads to
communicate the audio message to the target devices 790. In particular, each
such
pooled module or thread may communicate with a particular instance of
communications equipment for communicating with corresponding types of target
devices 790. For example, each such pooled module or thread may communicate
with a DTMF/VoIP dialer for dialing the telephone number of a target device to
receive the audio message. Each such pooled module or thread may be configured
to make any desired number of attempts to complete the communication should it
receive, e.g. a busy signal or should a call not be answered. In general, such
pooled
modules/threads may be generated and apportioned the module's delivery tasks
according to any desired criterion. The voice delivery module 830 may then
communicate an update to the database 740 indicating the transmission of the
alert
message to those recipients.
Once delivery of an alert message is completed (including, optionally, receipt
of
delivery confirmations from the target devices 790 - see below), then the
delivery
module 730 may record such delivery in the database 740. For example, in the
case
of communication by the voice delivery module 830, then such module may update
the database 740 to record the result of an attempted communication with a
particular target device 790, e.g. an attempted call to a telephone, with such
result
including, e.g. unanswered, busy, heard, responding.
-14-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Client Application
The system 710 may also be configured to cooperate with corresponding alert
broadcast clients resident on one or more of the target devices 790. Such
clients
may be configured to receive the alert message and any associated information
from
a corresponding specific delivery module 800, 810, 820, 830, 860 associated
with
the delivery module 730. The client may be configured to retrieve or otherwise
take
active steps to obtain the alert message (e.g. poll a recipient's e-mail
server 840,
listen for incoming connections from the IP delivery module 820, or listen for
incoming SMS from the SMS/MMS delivery module 810), and may provide co-
operating functionality as described hereinafter, e.g. to provide a receipt
confirmation
and response mechanism, and/or to provide message authentication and security.
The system 710, including the delivery module 730 and associated specific
delivery
modules 800, 810, 820, 830, 860 may be configured to prepare any particular
communication to a target device 790 so as to cooperate with such a client, or
may
instead prepare the communication assuming that no such client is operating on
the
target device 790 (i.e. relying only upon a minimum capability set for that
device).
For example, a client on a WiFi-enabled device (associated or unassociated)
may
listen for incoming connections from the IP delivery module 820, accept the
connections, receive and process the payload (optionally authenticate, confirm
receipt, display), then disconnect, connect back to the response handler 760
with a
user response (when applicable), and then prepare for subsequent connections.
(Unassociated devices might have to wait for a WiFi association before
providing a
confirmation and/or response.) A client on a network gateway 870 could operate
in a
similar fashion, listening for connections from the HTTP delivery module 860
and/or
the IP delivery module. A client on an SMS/MMS-enabled device would listen for
incoming messages from the SMS/MMS delivery module 810, receive and process
the message payload in a similar fashion, but receipt and user response would
be
sent back to the response handler 760 as an SMS message if configured to do
so.
-15-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Response Handler
The system 710 may include a response handler 760 to receive receipt
confirmation
messages from the target devices 790 and to provide for reporting of the same
to the
dispatcher, including through the generation of reports 850. Any target device
790
having an alert broadcast client installed or otherwise operating on the
device may
provide an acknowledgement or other response automatically or at the
recipient's
command by means of the client.
In the case of the communication of an alert message to a target device 790
capable
of receiving an e-mail message, that target device 790 may, automatically or
at the
command of the recipient operating that device, send a reply message to a
response
handler mailbox; such reply message may include merely an acknowledgement of
receipt of the alert message, or may also include an acknowledgement that the
alert
message has been read and/or and indication that the recipient is taking some
action
which may also be specified in the reply message.
In the case of the communication of an alert message to a target device 790
capable
of receiving an SMS/MMS message, that target device 790 may, automatically or
at
the command of the recipient operating that device, send a reply message to a
response handler mailbox, if the device has e-mail capability, or to an
SMS/MMS
short code monitored by the response handler 760.
In the case of the communication of an alert message to a target device 790
capable
of receiving an audio message and also capable of responding with an audio
message (e.g. a telephone), the recipient may use the target device to respond
with
DTMF tones or voice-recognized commands to acknowledge that the audio-encoded
alert message was received (e.g. heard), and may also indicate that they are
taking
action in response to the alert message, which may indicate an indication of
what
action they are taking.
In general, any particular target device 790 having sufficient capability may
operate
an alert broadcast client application configured to receive and process the
alert
message and to communicate one or more of the above-described receipt, read,
and
-16-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
action acknowledgements, as the case may be, automatically or at the command
of
the recipient operating the target device. Additionally, the target device 790
may be
used to communicate additional situational information back to the dispatcher,
such
as a text, picture, video, or audio message. Such informative responses could
be
used to provide content for subsequent broadcasts out to the target recipients
in an
emergency situation in order to provide guidance or just more information.
Furthermore, inasmuch as the receipt by the response hander 760 of an
acknowledgement from a particular target device 790 indicates that such target
device 790 is 'alive' and ready to receive further communication, then the
dispatcher,
upon receiving notice from the response handler 760 that the particular target
device
790 is alive, may initiate two-way communications with such device 790 via the
response module 730, e.g. by generating a further alert message and compiling
a
recipient list containing only that device 790, or otherwise. Such a facility
is of
particular advantage where the particular target device 790 had originally
responded
to the response handler 760 with situational information, and the dispatcher
has
been able to determine from such situational information that the user of that
target
device requires specific instructions in order to avoid a danger, or may have
or be
able to obtain further useful information.
Once the response handler 760 receives an acknowledgement or other response
message from a target device 790, it may then update the database 740 with the
details of such acknowledgement or response, and may then inform the
dispatcher
of the response content via the reporting module 850 or otherwise.
Reporting Module
The system 710 may include a reporting module 850 to generate reports based on
the contents of the database 740 or based on any other information receivable
by
the system 710. Such reports may include information regarding the recipients
for
which an attempt to communicate the alert message was made, the type(s) of
each
recipient's target device(s) 790, the address(es) of such device(s) 790, and
any
acknowledgement(s) or response(s) received from the device(s) 790 via the
response handler 760 or otherwise. Such reports may also particularize
linkages
-17-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
between multiple alerts and their responses to provide an incident response
audit
trail.
Message Authentication / Key Server
The system 710 may include a key server 710 module for providing for the
authentication of broadcasted alert messages and for avoiding the creation of
additional paths for spam to the target devices 790. Any suitable
authentication
methodology may be employed, including authentication employing public-private
key encryption. In such an embodiment, the dispatch module 720 communicates a
request to the key server 750 for a message tag and a private key. The key
server
750 then generates a new public-private key pair and associated tag, and
communicates the tag and private key to the broadcast module 720.
In preparing the alert message for communication to the target devices 790 via
the
delivery module 730, the dispatch module 720 encrypts some part of the message
package using the private key and then packages the recipients' identifiers
(and
addresses, as the case may be - see above), the alert message, and the message
tag. For example, a timestamp included in the alert message, or any other
predetermined portion of the alert message, may be encrypted. The package is
then
communicated to the delivery module 730 for communication to the target
devices
790.
Upon receiving the alert message and message tag, any target device 790
configured to authenticate the alert message (e.g. operating a alert message
client
application configured for such purpose - see above) may communicate with the
key
server 750 to retrieve the public key associated with the private key used to
encrypt
a portion of the alert message. The public key may be retrieved from the key
server
750 by means of the message tag (i.e. by communicating the message tag to the
key server 750). The target device 790 may then decrypt the encrypted portion
of the
alert message using the public key to authenticate the alert message. For
example, if
the encrypted portion of the alert message is a timestamp included therein,
then the
target device 790 would decrypt such portion using the public key, which may
in
such case be time-limited. (Limiting the public key to a particular time in
such case
-18-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
would serve to avoid illicit re-use if the private key is broken or stolen.)
The target
device 790, or alert message client operating thereon, may then identify the
alert
message as authenticate only if the decrypted timestamp falls within a
predetermined time/date range. In other words, if the decrypted timestamp is
too far
in the past, or is instead in the future, then the target device 790, or later
message
client, may consider such message to be unauthentic. In general, any
authentication
may be employed by the system and target device such as symmetric key
cryptography.
In such an embodiment, the public key server is "well-known" to intended
recipients.
For example, it may be determined "out-of-band" (pre-configured) so as to
avoid illicit
originators establishing a shadow key server. Alternatively, all alert message
clients
may be pre-configured with an address or identity of the public key server.
Such
address or identity may include a preset, well-known hostname, with the
advantage
that the public key server could be accessed, e.g. across public WiFi
hotspots.
Message authentication, such as described above, will generally only be
performed
in target devices having an alert message client installed/operating. Since
not all
target devices will ordinarily be capable of operating such a client (e.g. a
simple
voice telephone), the bulk of the alert message itself is usually not
encrypted.
However, in special cases where the dispatcher is sufficiently confident that
all
intended recipients are, or should be, operating a cooperating alert message
client,
then any part, including the entirety, or the alert message may be encrypted.
The system 710 may also be configured to perform deception detection in the
event
than one or more target devices 790 indeed receives a counterfeit alert
message.
For example, the response handler 710 may be configured to compare the
acknowledgement or other response information received from a target device
with
information stored in the database 740 regarding any recently or previously
transmitted alert messages and identify and suspicious inconsistency. For
example,
if a target device 790 transmits a receipt acknowledgement to the response
handler
760, but no alert message has been transmitted recently, then the response
handler
760 may flag the acknowledgement and either generate a report via the report
module 850 or transmit a message to the dispatch module 720 for, e.g. the
-19-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
dispatcher's consideration. Any alert message client installed and operating
on a
target device may also be configured to include in a recipient acknowledgement
from
the target device a copy of the received alert message; such copy may then be
compared by the response handler 760 with a copy of the original alert message
stored in the database 740. Such a comparison technique may also be employed
where the target device receives an e-mail or SMS/MMS message, and replies to
a
response mailbox or SMS/MMS shortcode.
Database
As discussed above, the database 740 stores records for each recipient who
registered/subscribed to receive alert messages. The database 740 may also
store
information concerning any other recipient or target device not
registered/subscribed
to receive alert messages, but whose identity and/or target device address(es)
were
determined by any of the means discussed above. Such device addresses may
include a MAC address, a telephone number (including a cellular telephone
number),
a corporate domain user name, a network interface identifier, and so forth.
The
database also holds the information received by the response handler 760 in
order to
provide information for the report module 850.
HTTP Delivery Embodiment
In order to identify as many prospective recipients as possible in a physical
or logical
proximity for receipt of an alert message, any suitable known methods may be
employed by the system. For example, it is known for WiFi deployments in
public
areas to authenticate new users for the purpose, e.g. of obtaining payment
information and authorization for access privileges. As described above, such
techniques may also be employed in the present system to identify prospective
alert
message recipients connected to such a communications node and to carry out
the
delivery of alert messages to them. Further detail of such embodiment is now
provided.
For example, a given recipient may be using a computer or handheld wireless
device
(i.e. that recipient's target device 790) which is networked wirelessly using
WiFi or
-20-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
WiMAX or a similar wireless system (i.e. a communications node 770) accessible
by
the dispatch module 720 and delivery module 730 via the network gateway 870.
In
such case, the system 710 provides the alert message to the network gateway
870,
and may cause the communications node, via the network gateway 870, to
redirect
the recipient computer HTTP session to a website which either has been updated
to
contain the alert message, or which requires the recipient to download and
install an
alert message client application for receiving the alert message. In this way,
the
installed client may be used to receive and authenticate the subsequently-
communicated alert message. (In such case, the downloaded client may be
preconfigured with the identity and/or address of, e.g. a public key server
where
authentication is performed via public-private key cryptography as described
above.)
In the process, the dispatch module 720 may also capture and record in the
database 740 the address of that target device, and communicate a recipient
identifier and perhaps also the device address to the delivery module 730 for
communication of the alert message to the target device 790.
Accordingly, the selectable groups of recipients available to the dispatch
module 720
may include a list of network gateways 870. Such a network gateway 870 may be
pre-configured with a page for containing the alert broadcast message, and may
further require devices associated with targeted connected access points to
view the
message page, and may yet further require devices unassociated with targeted
connected access points to associate and then view the message page. In both
associated and unassociated cases, the network gateway 870 may also track the
target devices connected to it and report to the dispatch module an indication
of any
devices which have received an alert message.
Physical Implementation
The system 710 may be implemented in any combination of hardware and/or
software as is considered advantageous and desirable in any particular
application.
All of the dispatch module 720, the response module 730, the database 740, the
key
server module 750, the response handler 760, and the report module 850 may
reside and operate in a single computer or may reside and operate in any
plurality of
-21 -
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
computers interfaced to each other. In addition, any of the functionality of
the various
models may be embodied in computer software instructions residing in a memory
or
a computer-readable medium in communication with a computer, or may
alternatively be embodied in special-purpose hardware specifically constructed
to
perform such functionality. Any of the various interfaces between the various
modules and components illustrated in Figure 7 may be embodied as logical
connections between software components or constructs, or may instead be
embodied as a physical communication means (e.g. a physical network connection
or other data connection such as a data connection to a DTMF dialer). In
general, a
person skilled in the relevant art may implement the logical functionality of
the
various parts of the system illustrated in Figure 7 and described herein to
suit any
particular application.
Specific Embodiment Employing an Agent Framework
The above-described system may be implemented in any specific
hardware/software
configuration considered to be most advantageous in any particular context.
For
example, the system may be embodied in a system such as that described in the
Applicant's co-pending International Application No. PCT/CA2007/002197. The
details of such specific embodiment now follow. For the purposes of
distinguishing
and/or describing relationships between the general embodiment previously
described and the specific embodiment now described, the embodiments will
hereinafter be respectively termed "general system" or "general embodiment" on
the
one hand, and "system" or "present embodiment", on the other hand.
The present embodiment now described contemplates the provision of alert
message broadcasting, as described above, as part of a system also generally
directed to providing broader communications services to end users. The
inclusion of
alert message broadcasting in such a system is particularly advantageous
inasmuch
as it provides an integration, and therefore simplification, of the
communications
services needed and/or desired by an end user.
Specifically, the system enables end users to retrieve messages and other
selected
content from a plurality of sources and for the processing of such messages or
other
-22-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
content for the intelligent miniaturization or other tailoring thereof for the
user's
mobile device or a set of designated delegates' mobile devices, and the
forwarding
of the processed content to the device(s). Such content may include: passive
content
- e.g., extracted from messages and informational in nature); or active
content -
e.g., also extracted from messages, which the user can use to trigger actions
such
as making a call, starting a chat, ordering payment for a service or product,
etc.
The system further provides for the prioritized broadcast of alert messages to
selected groups of users and their devices. User profiles are maintained
variously in
databases, directories, and other communications nodes (as in the general
embodiment). These sources are queried for the identification of selectable
groups,
which are then presented to the system administrator (e.g. the dispatcher) for
choosing the recipients. The alert message is provided to broadcast agents
within an
agent framework which then generate pooled agents specific to each target
device
type to deliver the message using appropriate messaging channels. The
broadcast
response agents then watch for and collect responses for later reporting.
Of particular advantage is that the system is adaptable to retrieve messages
from
any source that is accessible by the system via a network including, but not
limited
to, the Internet. Such sources include Internet mail transfer agents ("MTAs")
and
SMS gateways, external and internal mail servers, including RSS feeds, native
Web
pages, databases, Web and Internet services.
The system provides for the maintenance of a profile for each user, wherein
such
profile influences the collection, processing, and forwarding of messages and
other
content to the user's device. The system contemplates multiple user levels
wherein
such parameters as message box polling frequency, message processing priority,
and system resource allocation are influenced by a user's level. In at least
one
embodiment, the user's profile is accessible, at least in part, by the user to
allow him
or her to directly select preferences regarding: mailboxes or other sources
for
content retrieval; the manner in which such content is processed,
miniaturized, or
otherwise tailored for presentation on the user's device(s); and the devices
to which
such processed content is to be forwarded while mobile.
-23-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
The system provides for the maintenance of profiles for closed user groups
which
influence the processing, context analysis, and forwarding of messages and
other
content to the devices of the users in such groups.
For accomplishing the above-described functions, the system includes a
collaborative, multi-Agent Framework in which interdependent, but essentially
autonomous, user-configurable agents perform many of the functions. The
Framework interfaces and cooperates with components internal and external to
the
system, as described hereinafter. A Service providing network-accessible
content or
services to mobile devices is implemented as an application in the Agent
Framework. This Service leverages the Framework to provide a scalable
capability
for registered end-users to self-manage which specific content reaches their
mobile
device, including the form in which it is transmitted.
The scalable multi-Agent Framework supports hundreds, thousands, or millions
of
users through the integration of an intelligent scheduling agent, a database
connection agent, and framework support for agent pools containing variable
numbers of agents to performing processing tasks. Agents are built on this
framework to provide for connecting to content sources (e.g. mailboxes or
servers),
for applying context-based user preferences with respect to filtering and
processing
content, for transmitting notifications or alerts to the devices, for
triggering Internet
services based on active content, and for monitoring problems that may require
user
intervention.
The system also enables mobile users to respond to notifications through the
use of
messaging channels back to the Agent Framework from the mobile device. These
channels include electronic messaging, SMS, instant messaging, direct IP
connections, voice channels, or web browsing. In some cases, responses to
notifications can be improved through the use of mobile client-based agents
known
by the framework. A user might, for example, want to send a "canned" response
to
the sender, or might want to receive the full text of a message in multiple
subsequent
messages if the original notification included only a small summary. The
system also
enables mobile users to respond to notifications through the use of active
content
provided within the notification. Such active content is used to enable
communication
-24-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
methods native to the devices, such as the initiation of voice calls or chat
sessions
on a mobile phone. Active content may also trigger transactional services such
as
payment for a product or service by a user through a proxy agent with
authorization
from the user to perform such payment.
System Components
Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary system 10
according
to the present embodiment. The system 10 includes one or more servers 20
running
operating systems within which the Agent Framework 30, the Watch Dog 40, and
the
Web Application Server 50 operate. An Administration Console 60, an end-user
Self
Administration Portal 70, and a Reply Handler 75 operate within one or more of
the
Web Application Servers 50. A Database 80 for capturing and storing all user
data
runs on another server or cluster of servers. Also included are scripts 90 for
performing administrative tasks as described hereinafter.
The system 10 interacts with HTTP clients 100 (e.g. web browsers operated by
end
users on fixed and/or mobile devices) via a Self Administration Portal 70,
whereby
the end users can view and modify their profile and status as stored in the
Database
80. It also interacts via HTTP (fixed and/or mobile) with administrator users
via an
Administration Console 60, whereby administrators can monitor and configure
the
Service profile in the Database 80, the Agent Framework 30, and the Watch Dog
40.
As described hereinafter, the Administration Console 60 also employs a
Management Adapter 65 to interface the Agent Framework 30.
The system 10 also interacts with sources of passive content (corporate
directory
servers, mail stores and information services 110, and Internet mail stores
and
information sources 120) and active content (e.g. Internet services brokers
that
deliver a service or product to end users after electronic payment) via both
standard
and proprietary protocols to retrieve new or updated content. Finally, it also
interacts
with gateways via standard protocols like SMTP, SMPP and SOAP, and interacts
with any other provided communications interfaces 125 (e.g. local networking
equipment providing access to communications networks, voice telephony
equipment) to provide communication to both mobile and fixed end-user devices.
-25-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Included are an SMTP Gateway 130 which is used to communicate with external
SMTP mail transfer agents ("MTAs") 140 for accessing external message sources,
and external Service Provider SMS/MMS Gateways 150 (which may include e-mail-
to-SMS/MMS Gateways) for interfacing with mobile devices via the SMS/MMS
protocol.
In performing its alert broadcasting functionality, the external sources or
recipients
accessible by the system, identified above, may be included in any of the
sources or
recipients described in connection with the general system. For example, the
Directories 127 may include the corporate directory servers identified above,
as well
as any other directories 780 as described in connection with the general
system.
Likewise, the communications interfaces 125 may be included in any of the
communications nodes 770 or the network gateway 870 in connection with the
general system. Similarly, the SMTP Gateway 130 and/or SMTP MTAs 140 may be
included in the SMTP MTA or gateway 840 of the general system.
The Agent Framework 30 is run within a secure environment (e.g. a Java Virtual
Machine) and is itself generally implemented as a closed, secure system, but
the
typical operating environment is in a server 20 behind a secure network
firewall 160.
It is not reliant upon any specific firewall functionality, but a typical
installation will
ensure blocking of all access ports except for those required by HTTP, SMTP,
POP3
and IMAP, and their encrypted variants.
The Agent Framework 30 provides an environment for application development in
the form of collaborating agents. Capabilities include: instantiation,
management,
and destruction of agents, support for the management of pools of cloned
worker
agents, inter-agent communication, timer management, and logging.
The management components external to the Agent Framework 30 include two web
applications running in a Web Application Server 50. The first is an end-user
accessed Self-Administration Portal 70, whereby users subscribe to the Service
and
manage their profile. This component interacts only with the Database 80. The
second is an Administration Console 60 provided for administrators to manage
the
system. The Administration Console 60 leverages two additional components: a
-26-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Watch Dog daemon 40, which starts, stops, and ensures robustness of the Agent
Framework 30 and the Service; and a Management Adapter 65, which provides a
real-time interface into the Service. The Management Adapter 65 in turn
communicates with a Management Agent within the Agent Framework 30 in order to
retrieve real-time status from agents that make up the Service. Additionally,
external
to the Agent Framework 30, periodic scripts 90 are run to maintain the
Database 80
and to provide additional reporting functionality, such as providing periodic
updates
to users of the Service's activity regarding their own profiles.
The Service can be deployed either as an enterprise application (i.e.
providing
services to a group of users authenticated against local corporate domains) or
as a
service-provider managed application (i.e. providing services to external
subscribers
that are not members of a cohesive authentication domain). In the case of a
corporate deployment, end-users are authenticated for self-management using
domain authentication against a directory service. In a service-provider
deployment,
the Service provides internal authentication and password management. Other
than
this difference, the Service components are indifferent to the deployment
scenario.
In both enterprise and service provider deployments, the system may consist of
multiple Agent Frameworks 30 each controlled by a Watch Dog 40 and interfaced
with a Management Adapter 65. Each such Agent Framework 30 is identified by a
Service ID, and each subscriber is assigned to one Service ID, but may be
moved
from one Service ID to another to allow for load balancing between different
instantiations. Such distributed Frameworks each operate independently, but
share
the User Database 80, the associated scripts 90, the Self-Administration
Portal 70,
and the Administration Console 60. In general, however, all of the Agent
Framework
30, Watch Dog 40, Administration Console 60, Management Adapter 65, Self-
Administration Portal 70, Database 80, and scripts 90 components can be
combined
into a single server or split into a multiple server solution. In a multiple
server
scenario, the Agent Framework 30 and Watch Dog 40 components are generally co-
located, and may be duplicated for scalability and/or redundancy purposes.
Likewise,
in cases where the Database 80 is distributed across multiple servers, each
such
segment or portion will generally be accompanied by scripts 90 for the
maintenance
of that portion or segment. Multiple Web Application Servers 50 may also be
-27-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
provided with each operating a corresponding Administration Console 60 and/or
Self-Administration Portal 70. The end-user Self-Administration Portal 70 and
the
Administration Console 60 are both constructed to recognize and interact with
multiple Framework/Watch Dog combinations.
The management components of the system and the Agent Framework will now be
described, followed by a description of components of the Service and its
operation.
Service Administration Console Components
The Administration Console 60 provides an interface for administrators to
monitor
and manage the Service, and to generate alert messages for broadcast (i.e. as
a
dispatcher in the general system). The Console 60 is a web application that
can
support multiple instances of the Agent-Framework/Watch-Dog/Management-
Adapter environments, which the administrators access by specifying the
Service ID.
The Administration Console 60 interfaces locally or across a network with the
Management Adapter 65 for access to real-time status information about the
Agent
Framework 30, for access to agent configuration files, for access to the Watch
Dog
40 interface, and for access to utilities that provide local processing of
longer
commands (such as broadcasting a message to all subscribers on a specific
Service
I D).
The Console 60 also interfaces directly with the User Database 80 for allowing
administrators to monitor and modify subscriber account data and processing
results.
In performing the alert broadcasting functionality of the system 10, the
Console 60
may further interface for querying the User Database 80 (to retrieve, e.g.
user group
attributes such as wireless service provider, e-mail provider) and/or
Communications
Interfaces 125 (e.g. WiFi controller/switch) and Directories 127 (e.g. to
retrieve
distribution lists, location names) via the Management Adapter 65 and Agent
Framework 30 (as described further hereinbelow) for obtaining information
regarding
prospective alert broadcast recipients. The Console 60 further interfaces the
Agent
-28-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Framework 30, via the Management Adapter 65, for creating the alert message to
be
broadcast, and for initiating broadcast of the alert by passing a "broadcast
package"
containing the message to corresponding agents in the Agent Framework 30, as
described hereinafter.
In particular, the Console 60 may be employed to select or otherwise affect
the
system's 10 operational priority with respect to its handling of alert message
broadcasts. As described herein, the system 10 may also include and perform
general user content and forwarding functionality, and as is described
hereinbelow
the operational priorities of such functionality may be determined by user
classes of
service and other scheduling parameters. In performing alert broadcasting, a
dispatcher using the Console 60 may assign the alert broadcasting task any
desired
priority to override such scheduling in order to ensure the expedited delivery
of an
alert broadcast. Alternatively, the system 10 may be preconfigured to give
alert
broadcasts the highest priority, i.e. to perform them first in preference to
the general
user content retrieval and delivery functions of the system 10.
The system 10 may include or provide via the Console 60 a set of templates or
other
tools to enable or assist a dispatcher to construct an alert message for
broadcast
using the system 10. The templates or tools may variously correspond with
particular
target user devices such that, by using such a corresponding template or tool,
the
content of the alert message will be receivable and displayable/perform-able
by that
device. For example, one template may limit the alert message to text of a
maximum
number of characters to ensure that it is receivable and displayable by
devices
capable of receiving SMS messages. Alternatively, the system 10 may employ a
Content Personalization Agent 295, as described hereinafter, to `tailor'
whatever alert
message is prepared and forwarded by the Console 60 to the Agent Framework 30
so as to be receivable and displayable/performable by any particular target
user
device.
The report 850 functionality of the general system 710 may also be implemented
in
the Administration Console 60 or as an agent in the Agent Framework 30
configured
for such purpose.
-29-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Service Self-Administration Portal Component
The Self-Administration Portal 70 is a web application accessible via fixed or
mobile
HTTP clients that provides subscribers with a way to personalize the Service
capabilities to match the content sources that are important to them, and to
format
that content for their particular devices. The portal is independent of
specific Service
IDs, and interacts only with the User Database 80 for reading User Data and
storing
back any modifications. Subscribers have no need to know the specific Service
ID
their account is being processed on.
Subscriber authentication to the portal leverages directory services where
they exist,
such as in an enterprise deployment or an LDAP-enabled Service Provider
environment. In such cases, the subscriber's domain, user name, and password
are
used not only to authenticate to the Portal, but also to access the prime
content
source (usually an enterprise mailbox).
Once authenticated, subscribers are presented with a user interface that
allows them
to see the status of the Service's access to each of their content sources,
including
any persistent error state, the time of the last content forwarded, the number
of
content messages forwarded, and other statistics. They can also add/remove
content sources, can modify their mobile devices, and can modify the
forwarding and
formatting personalization settings.
The Self-Administration Portal 70 also supports self-subscription, if enabled
by the
deployment scenario (i.e. if the Directory Retrieval Agent 570 (described
hereinafter)
is disabled). In this circumstance, a subscriber can access the Portal 70
anonymously and can fill out a registration form that requires identification
of a prime
content source (usually an enterprise mailbox) and one destination device.
The Self-Administration Portal 70 further enables a subscriber to subscribe
to, and to
specify any parameters regarding, an alert broadcasting service of the system
10.
For example, a subscriber may specify particular devices at which the
subscriber
wishes to receive alerts, or to provide any other specification or selection
usable by
-30-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
the system in selecting the subscriber as a recipient of an alert broadcast
and
dispatching an alert message to the subscriber's device(s).
Script Components
Several scripts (or small utility programs) are run periodically by the system
in order
to maintain the User Database 80 and to provide other administration duties.
These
scripts include the capabilities for:
changing the Service Level Agreement of users whose paid interval is over
(e.g. change paid to free);
adding and deleting users (batch subscriptions only: single users are
processed in real-time);
validating users from an external e-commerce system (in a Service Provider
environment);
backing up the database;
trimming the reporting-related data (transactions) from the database; and
sending unsolicited messages, for example:
to free subscribers: e.g. advertisements for the paid service;
to all subscribers: e.g. status messages indicating the processing and
notifications performed by the Service for them over the past week or
month;
to targeted subscribers: advertisements for 3rd parties;
to expiring subscribers: warning that their paid service is about to
expire and that user will be downgraded to the free service; and
to welcome new users.
Collaborative Agent Framework
Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram illustrating components of the Agent
Framework 30, agents of the Service operating in the Framework 30, and several
of
the system components external to the Framework which have already been
introduced. The Framework 30 supports two forms of agents: singleton agents
and
pooled agents. Any function requiring an agent may be performed by a singleton
agent; however, in the exemplary system, pooled agents (described further
-31-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
hereinafter) are ordinarily used for performing Service functions that can be
scaled
through multiple concurrent activities, and singleton agents typically provide
application control or access to and management of constrained resources (such
as
the pooled agents).
Singleton agents providing control over pooled agents make use of the pool
management facilities of the Framework which support creation, distribution of
work,
sanity checking, destruction, and reincarnation (i.e. reactivation when
excessively
delayed in delivering a result) of the pooled agents. The Framework 30
provides the
ability to manage performance and scalability by means of agent pool
management.
With reference to Figure 3, the Pool Manager 310 manipulates the number of
threads provided by an agent for doing work. The role of the Pool Manager 310
is to
act like a bridge by allowing a pool of agents 320 to take the place of a
single agent,
while maintaining the same interface as the single agent. It manages the
delegation
of received events to the pooled agents 320, and responds to the replaced
agent's
events normally. Such events are processed in parallel through the pool of
agents.
The Pool Manager 310 has operating parameters that place limits on the number
of
agents within a pool. The minimum number of agents (i.e. the `low water mark'
330)
are automatically instantiated upon pool initialization. The Pool Manager 310
can
then create more agents as needed to manage incoming requests, subject to the
limitation of the maximum number of agents (i.e. the `high water mark' 340).
In the
description and Figures, reference may be made alternatively to a 'poolable
agent' or
to a pool manager of such agents, but it will be appreciated that either
reference
includes either alternative.
With reference again to Figure 2, the Agent Framework 30 provides a Whiteboard
210 messaging system for agent interaction. The Agent Framework 30 also
provides
timer management facilities supporting the creation and destruction of timers,
as well
as the handling of timeouts. It also provides logging facilities for hooking
the Service
into the logging mechanism of the host operating system. Finally, the
Framework 30
provides a mechanism for receiving startup, graceful shutdown, immediate
shutdown, and sanity check commands from an external entity (e.g. the Watch
Dog
40).
-32-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Applications running within the Agent Framework 30 are developed using the
defined
interfaces of the Framework, which require the applications to implement known
interfaces for initialization, destruction, and sanity checks. The Service
agents
integrate into the Framework through either pre-configuration of the Service
Monitor
Agent 220 or via external injection from the Watch Dog 40. The Service Monitor
Agent 220 handles the starting, stopping, and sanity-checking of the Service
agents
at the request of the Watch Dog 40. The Service agents leverage the Whiteboard
210 interfaces for communications, timers, pool management, and logging.
Agents implemented using the Agent Framework 30 are architected to be event-
driven, waiting to receive events (messages and timer events), processing each
one
to completion, then waiting for the next event. Agents typically keep any
persistent
configuration data in property files (flat files). When the agent is launched
it initialises
all of its configuration values from its persistent storage, and then reports
that it is
ready to start processing events. When it receives a shutdown event it will
write any
new configuration data to the persistent storage before shutting down.
The Framework components will now be discussed in greater detail.
Framework Whiteboard
The Whiteboard 210 is the messaging service for providing messaging between
the
agents. Events are sent to the Whiteboard 210 from any agent and forwarded to
the
queues of any agents that have registered to receive such events. Receiving
agents
process the notifications in order, to completion, as part of their event
loop. This
mechanism allows agents to post specific rich content message events and to
request notification of the posting of specific events. For example, a worker
agent
that has completed work could post a Content-Retrieval Complete message, and
any
waiting application agents would receive the message.
Multiple queues are provided for each agent to support messages of differing
priorities, with the number defined by the application's requirements. The
agent is
-33-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
given only a single interface to the queues: the Whiteboard 210 ensures that
higher-
priority events are handled before lower-priority messages.
The Whiteboard 210 is also capable of moving message queues between agent
instances. This is done automatically when the Service Monitor Agent (SMA) 220
deems an agent "insane", as described below. After a new clone of the agent is
created, the Whiteboard is directed to give the original's incoming message
queue to
the new agent.
Framework Management
The Agent Framework 30 provides a Service Monitor Agent (SMA) 220 for
application management. It provides the start-up, status, and shutdown access
point
for the agents within the Agent Framework 30. Agents are created variously
through
SMA 220 configuration properties, through Watch Dog 40 injection to the SMA
220
(where the path to the agent software is identified), or by hard-coding into
the SMA
220 start-up list. At Framework start-up, the SMA 220 listens for a connection
from
the Watch Dog 40 for controlling the service, and, once connected, responds to
Watch Dog 40 commands to start, stop, and poll the agents.
With reference to Figure 3 and Figure 4, the latter showing a subset of the
agents
and system components involved in Framework management, the SMA 220 polls the
manageable agents 230 (representing any of the Service agents shown in Figure
2)
at the request of the Watch Dog 40 to determine if they are all still alive
and able to
process events. If a persistent unrecoverable agent failure is detected, the
SMA 220
will initiate a service shutdown and report this event back to the Watch Dog
40.
When commanded, the SMA 220 initiates a shutdown by asking each agent 230 to
shut down (on its high priority message queue), and awaits their responses.
Any
agents 230 not responding within a configured time are killed. Data may be
lost if
shutdown is not controlled and the agent 230 has to be terminated.
If a single agent is deemed insane, the Whiteboard 210 will hold messages for
such
agent until the new instance is up and running. A new instance of the agent
will be
-34-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
created and initialized. The new agent's queue will be populated with the
messages
retrieved from the dying agent via the Whiteboard 210.
Framework Timer Management
The Framework 30 provides agents with the capability to start, stop, and
handle
interrupts from timers, generally used to provide periodic services and to
recover
from networking problems. A timer management facility of the Framework allows
a
client agent to create any number of timers, which can be single shot (one
timeout),
or repetitive (start again after the first timeout). When a timer expires, it
calls back to
an interface that the agent provides to the timer management facility. To
improve
CPU use efficiency, the agent specifies the lowest resolution of timer that is
desired
(the "tick length"). The timer management facility can thereby minimize
processing at
each of the system-level timer interrupts, allowing for efficient high and low
resolution
timers.
Framework Logging
The Framework provides agents with a logging facility for logging activity to
mechanisms on the local operating system, or to a central server if multiple
Service
IDs are in use. It supports run-time determination of the logging method, and
offers a
factory-based instantiation model, where agents can create their own log
headers in
order to clearly identify the originator of each log. Additionally, logs from
several
Agent Frameworks can be combined and centrally located if necessary.
Watch Dog Component
Operating as a persistent "daemon" within each collaborating server, the Watch
Dog
40 is started and stopped under administrator control and automatically
restarted in
the occurrence of a server reboot. The Watch Dog 40 ensures robustness of the
Service by maintaining a connection to a corresponding Service Monitor Agent
220
operating within the Agent Framework 30, offering recovery from problems with
the
Agent Framework 30 that were unforeseen, such as unexpected message formats
-35-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
and/or networking problems that could cause the system to slow down or run out
of
memory.
At a tunable frequency, the Watch Dog 40 requests a sanity check from the
Framework, which returns a status of e.g. red/yellow/green. Agent Framework 30
applications determine what constitutes a yellow or red condition themselves,
responding to the Service Monitor Agent 220 which in turn responds to the
Watch
Dog 40 with a rollup of the individual application states. The Watch Dog 40
responds
to the rollup states by restarting the Agent Framework 30 if a red status is
returned,
or in the case of a configurable number of repeated yellow states. It also
treats non-
response as a red status, forcing a restart of the Agent Framework 30.
In addition, the Watch Dog 40 produces alerts to inform administrators of
automated
problem recovery and when administrator assistance is necessary. The Watch Dog
40 further provides a console interface for manually
starting/stopping/restarting the
service and checking its status, although typically administrators interact
with the
Watch Dog 40 via an application-specific administration console.
Service Management Agent
The Management Agent (MA) 240 is responsible for managing all real-time
management queries from the Management Adapter 65 component (i.e. from the
Administration Console 60). It can request that all manageable agents report
their
status, and can push information to a specific agent for tweaking settings
while the
system is live. It also listens for critical system errors such as SMTP
connection
failure, and informs the Management Adapter 65 for administrator notification
when
such a failure occurs.
The Management Agent 240 further processes alert broadcast information
received
from the Administration Console 60 via the Management Adapter 65.
Specifically, as
described in connection with the general embodiment, the Management Agent 240
may receive an alert message package including an alert message for
communication to intended recipients, and information identifying such
recipients
which may also include addresses of the communications device(s) of such
-36-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
recipients. The Management Agent 240 may then communicate, via the Whiteboard
210, with other agents in the Agent Framework 30 for obtaining further target
device
addresses, as needed, for processing the alert message for particular types of
target
devices, for communicating the processed alert messages to the target devices,
and
for receiving and processing responses received from such target devices or
otherwise.
Service Application Overview
With reference again to Figure 2, the Service Application includes a Mobile
Network
Content Service application operating in the Agent Framework 30 consisting of
a set
of collaborating agent types: Management Agents (MAs) 240, User Management
Agents (UMAs) 250, Class of Service Agents (CSAs) 260, User Status Agents
(USAs) 270, Broadcast Response Agents (BRAs) 275, Content Retrieval Agents
(CRAB) 280, Content Delivery Agents (CDAs) 290, Content Personalization Agents
(CPAs) 295, and Broadcast Agents (BAs) 297. (The latter four are shown as
corresponding pool managers; as discussed above, these agents are preferably
pool-able agents for managing performance and scalability.) Also included are
Key
Server Agents (KSAs) 298, as described hereinbelow. As described hereinafter,
these agents collaborate to provide real-time broadcasting of alert messages
to a
plurality of diverse user devices. They also collaborate to provide subscribed
users
with network-accessible content of interest on their mobile devices in device-
appropriate format in near-real-time.
The Service may be used to broadcast an alert message to a plurality of mobile
or
fixed devices. As in the rendered content case, discussed below, the Service
may
employ any device-appropriate formatting. The Service forwards these broadcast
alert messages in real-time, initiating the broadcast immediately upon
reception of
the message.
The Service may further be used to forward to a mobile device any content
accessible by the server on which the Service agents reside. Examples are: e-
mail
from mail store mailboxes; blog content from RSS feeds (or other methods); web
content from WAP or HTTP access (or other methods); active Internet content
-37-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
requiring user response or authorization, e.g. for payment for a service or
product;
textual data from database queries or Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
queries
(or other methods); and documents, document text and images from file servers
and
document repositories. Content is deemed 'of interest' if it meets any of the
i subscriber's configured preferences, which involves filtering against
metadata from
the content. Examples are the content originator or a phrase included in an
'allow list'
and not in a `block list', or if the content appears within a specific
timeframe, or the
content is of a specific format (e.g. a voice message).
In rendering content for forwarding to a mobile device, the Service may employ
any
device-appropriate format including anything from the subject of an e-mail or
the title
of a blog post to a full word-processing document to a voice or video message,
depending upon the capabilities of the mobile device (e.g. screen size, on-
board
applications, communication channels) and the preferences of the subscriber.
Since
mobile devices generally provide a subset of desktop capabilities, a summary,
snapshot, or lower-resolution rendering of the content is usually the
preferred format.
The Service preferably forwards content in 'near-real-time', meaning that the
Service
is polling the content sources configured by the subscriber at the rate given
in a
Service Level Agreement (SLA, described hereinafter), normally on the scale of
minutes. When new content is detected on any of the configured content
sources, it
is processed according to the subscriber's preferences and, if warranted, it
is
forwarded in the appropriate form to the subscriber's mobile device.
In addition to polling, the Service supports subscriber forwarding of content,
for
example to process e-mail arriving in a mailbox that is not accessible by POP3
or
IMAP protocols, or to process alerts from a solution that does not provide
programmatic access. All such content arrives in a 'forwarding mailbox', one
for each
Service Level Agreement level, which is then polled regularly for new content.
There
is also a Service-wide 'error mailbox' provided to catch messaging bounces and
other problems from devices that are reached via SMTP. This mailbox is also
regularly polled, and any parse-able errors are automatically processed and
added
to the affected subscribers' Database records for later problem notification
treatment.
-38-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
The Service components will now be described in greater detail.
Service Class-Of-Service Agent
With reference again to Figure 2, and to Figure 5 showing the components of
the
system involved in the management of subscriber accounts, the Class-Of-Service
Agent (COSA) 260 controls the inflow of work to the Service, and acts as a
coordinating point for account management as each subscriber account is
processed. With respect to the alert broadcasting function of the system,
however,
the COSA need not be employed as, in performing such functionality, the alert
message dispatcher, operating through the Administration Console 60, may
manage
and/or select the communications priorities governing the broadcasting of
alert
messages.
The system contemplates that users are classified according to a Service Level
Agreement (SLA); for example, some users may receive the service without
charge,
while other users pay a fee. The COSA schedules work equally for all
subscribers at
a specific class-of-service according to the SLA, but generally gives temporal
and
processing priority to, e.g. paying subscribers over non-paying subscribers.
Each subscriber of the Service will have identified one or more content
sources that
he/she wants to have delivered to their mobile device. The COSA schedules work
(a
`transaction') for each content source separately. It co-ordinates with the
User
Manager Agent 250 to check-out (i.e. reserve) a list of content sources which
it
processes (i.e. retrieves contents) simultaneously. The algorithm for checking
out a
content source may or may not depend on the subscriber: generally a single
subscriber's content sources are scheduled for retrieval before another
subscriber's
sources are considered, but the COSA has information on how many transactions
of
each media type are active, and can leverage this to improve overall
processing
efficiency by scheduling different media types across different subscribers as
it
attempts to maintain each subscriber's SLA.
The COSA's decision to process a certain account at a certain time takes into
consideration the following factors:
-39-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
1. the class of service of the subscriber (i.e. premium, free, etc.) and
therefore
the priority of the subscriber;
2. fairness, such that all users in a specific SLA are given the same polling
frequency, with the exception of when a poll takes longer than the polling
frequency (in which case the account poll starts as soon as possible after the
previous poll times out);
3. the type of account being processed: polling-subscriber's account, shared-
forwarding account, or error account (described hereinafter); and
4. the volume of messages currently in the system.
If the system becomes too busy, due to factors such as the detection of low
memory,
too much subscriber content received (a good indicator of impending low
memory),
all pooled agents in use, an operator-imposed stand-by condition, etc., then
the
COSA ceases to schedule new transactions until the condition clears.
There are four 'special' subscriber content sources that the COSA must process
in
particular ways: a `forwarded' account, an `error' account, zero or more
'SMS/MMS
reply' accounts, and a `remote control' account. These may reside on any
message
server accessible by the system. The 'forwarded' account identifies a named
Service
mailbox that subscribers identify as one of their content sources. In this
case, when
the new e-mail is retrieved for this account, the COSA separates the e-mail
into
individual 'sub-transactions' for each originating subscriber found, checking
out each
subscriber for each sub-transaction. (Messages from unknown forwarders is
discarded.) The transactions, which include the set of messages and the actual
subscriber's User Data, are then forwarded to the Content Personalization
Agent
(CPA) 295 (and thereafter to the Content Delivery Agent (CDA) 290 for
personalization and delivery as appropriate. When all individual transactions
are
completed the main `forwarded' account transaction is closed.
Similarly, the 'error' account identifies another named Service mailbox that
receives
message bounce errors for SMTP-transmitted notifications sent by the Service.
When the COSA 260 receives the new message from this mailbox from the Content
Retrieval Agent (CRA) 280, it identifies the affected subscribers through
matching
the device e-mail address in the error e-mail. The COSA 260 then sends `lost
-40-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
transaction' events to the User Status Agent (USA) 270 for each failed
transmission,
and the USA in turn then updates each subscriber's error status.
Similarly the `SMS/MMS reply' account identifies one or more named Service
mailboxes that receive replies to messages from SMS/MMS-enabled subscriber
devices. Replies from these devices are sent from an SMS/MMS Gateway Handler
(e.g. a small web application operating in the Web Application Server 50 that
receives posts from the Service Provider SMS/MMS Gateway 150 and translates
them to e-mail) to the named mailbox. When the COSA receives new messages
from this mailbox from the CRA, it extracts the SMS message index from the
message that was replied to from the mail, and the subscriber's response
subject
and text from each mail. The SMS indexes are matched against the transaction
records stored in the User Database, and the content originator is retrieved
from the
matching record. The COSA then creates a transaction for the subscriber and
forwards it to the CDA for delivery by electronic messaging to the original
sender of
the message.
Similarly, the `remote control' account identifies a named Service mailbox
that
provides a subscriber-to-Service response channel for remote control of the
Service
while mobile. This can be supported for e-mail enabled devices directly, and
for
SMS/MMS-enabled devices via the same mechanism used by the `SMS/MMS reply'
method. When the COSA retrieves new e-mail from this mailbox from the CRA, it
extracts the originating device address, a command, and optionally an
identifier (e.g.
SMS ID or e-mail subject). The originating address is matched to a subscriber
account, and if present, the identifier is matched to one of the subscriber's
transactions. This capability supports commands such as:
deleting e-mail that has been forwarded to the device from a mailbox;
asking for full text of summarized content to be forwarded;
selection of an alternate device (when multiple have been pre-configured);
turning the Service notification on or off.
For commands that require access to a mailbox, the COSA originates a
transaction
for the subscriber, overriding the normal user preferences held in the User
Data.
Otherwise the COSA simply updates the cached User Data.
-41 -
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
The COSA's standard responsibilities are therefore:
to determine at what frequency the forwarding and error mailboxes are polled
in relationship to the polling frequency of the subscriber accounts;
to ensure that the each subscriber account is opened, processed and closed
successfully in accordance with the SLA;
to recognize the changing load and adapt the scheduling rate as subscribers
turn off or on notification, and as new subscribers are added;
optionally, to limit the maximum number of messages forwarded and
maximum number of bytes processed per user per day;
optionally, to limit the total number of bytes processed;
if a subscriber is in `notification off' mode, to not send a request through
the
system, whether it originates from normal subscriber processing or from the
forwarded mailbox; and
to handle errors encountered during the processing of each subscriber
account, allowing the system to recover appropriately.
When subscribers configure their mailboxes to auto-forward messages to one of
several communal mailboxes (one per SLA) (instead of having the Service poll
the
subscribers mailbox), the responsibilities of the COSA are:
to sort the messages by username and time received;
to validate the user identities, filtering out any spam and other non-
subscriber
messages; and
to group messages by user and send each set of mail to the appropriate
Content Personalization Agent Pool Manager for parsing and processing.
Service User Management Agent
The User Manager Agent (UMA) 250, shown in Figures 2 and 5, coordinates all
access by the Service agents to subscriber accounts within the User Database
80. It
provides an API supporting the various query types required by the other
agents,
such as adding or removing subscribers, checking for the existence of a
particular
subscriber, matching a subscriber name with their password, and the retrieval
and
storage of User Data objects that each contain all information required to
processor
-42-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
a subscriber (account details, content sources, mobile devices, and
personalization
preferences).
As illustrated in Figure 5, the UMA maintains cached copies 510, 520 of the
User
Data 530 and Class of Service (COS, i.e. SLA) Data 540, as well as a Messages
Cache 550 of end-user messages, in the User Database 80 via a Cache Controller
560. The Cache Controller 560 independently maintains the caches 510, 520, 530
by
periodically synchronizing them with the User Database 80. For efficiency, the
UMA
250 also keeps read-only copies of the User Data 530 for subscriber accounts
that
are in a 'forward' state (i.e. not those that have temporarily turned off the
Service).
As the User Data 530 is changed from transaction processing, it is written
back into
the User Data Cache 510, which is then synchronized with the Database 80
sometime later. Similarly, if the User Data Cache 510 is updated from the User
Database 80, the changes are propagated into the read-only copies for the next
subscriber transaction.
The UMA 250 optionally collaborates with an optional Directory Retrieval Agent
(DRA) 570 (discussed further hereinafter) for the purpose of managing
subscriber
population in the User Database 80. If the DRA 570 is not used, the subscriber
population in the User Database 80 is managed via the Self-Administration
Portal 70.
The UMA 250 collaborates with the COSA 260 for the purpose of scheduling of
subscriber processing by being ready to service a request for the next user to
process from the User Data Cache 510. The request for the next user could be
specified as the next user of a specified SLA, as the forwarding account for a
specific
SLA, or as the error account for the system.
The UMA 250 further collaborates with the COSA 260 for maintaining consistent
representations of subscribers' content sources, and updating dynamic
information
about the processing of subscriber accounts such as counts of messages
processed, the number and type of errors encountered, and the success/failure
of
each process cycle (transaction), used for reporting purposes. The
representations
of subscribers' content sources generally involve taking a snapshot of the
current
state. For example, a mailbox state representation would include the arrival
date of
-43-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
the last mail received at polling time, and a blog state representation would
include
the posting date of the last message at polling time, and a document
repository
representation would include the date of the last document updated at polling
time.
The UMA implements the above-described database cache for efficiency reasons.
The cache is updated on a periodic cycle, and holds the sets of User Data for
each
SLA level, the per-subscriber errors encountered, the transactions records,
the
parameters for each SLA level, and the list of notification messages provided
to
subscribers and administrators under error conditions. The cache provides the
following access methods:
check-out - read cached data and apply write lock (no additional check-out is
allowed and no writes are allowed until the record is checked-in);
read - read-only with no lock on data;
write - write non-transaction-related data into the cache (queued if a write-
lock is in place);
check-in - write back into cache, removal of write lock, and processing of any
queued writes; and
update - write out cached data that has been changed to the database, and
read in any new data provided by external sources (such as the Self-
Administration Portal or the Administration Console).
In performing its alert broadcasting functionality, the system 10 may employ
the User
Manager Agent 250 to retrieve from the Database 80 the device addresses of any
subscriber user device or other end user device. In particular, if an alert
message
broadcast package received by the Broadcast Agent 297 identifies target end
user
devices but does not also specify the device address of such end user device,
then
the Broadcast Agent 297 may query the Database 80 via the User Manager Agent
250 for such address.
Service Directory Retrieval Agent
As indicated above, the Service optionally includes a Directory Retrieval
Agent
(DRA) 570 for managing the subscriber population. It periodically accesses a
network directory resource 127 (e.g. corporate directory server), optionally
over an
-44-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
encrypted channel, to monitor membership in a named distribution list, then
synchronizes the membership of that list to the subscribers held in the User
Manager
Agent (UMA) 250, including any changed information such as user name, mailbox
name, and mailbox server.
To find the named distribution list, the DRA 570 accesses the directory server
127
(e.g. via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and searches for the list
of
members. Once the list is found, it is traversed to discover all members,
including
those that are in nested distribution lists. A maximum nesting depth is used
to
prevent the possibility of one distribution list nesting a second distribution
list that
contains the first one. A further check is made to ensure there is no member
duplication, and that all necessary attributes (user name, mailbox name, and
mailbox
server) are present.
Synchronization of the member list with the subscriber list is achieved by
checking
for the existence of each member in the User Database 80 (via the User Manager
Agent 250). If the member is not subscribed, he/she is added to the User
Database
80. If the member is already subscribed, the subscriber attributes are checked
against the directory attributes, and updates are applied if necessary. If a
subscriber
is not in the member list, he/she is deemed to be unsubscribed, and the User
Manager Agent 250 is asked to change the subscriber account status to
unsubscribed.
In performing its alert broadcasting functionality, the system 10 may employ
the
Directory Retrieval Agent 570 to retrieve from the Directories 127 the device
addresses of any subscriber user device or other end user device. In
particular, if an
alert message broadcast package received by the Broadcast Agent 297 identifies
target end user devices but does not also specify the device address of such
end
user device, then the Broadcast Agent 297 may query the Directories 127 via
the
Directory Retrieval Agent 570 for such address.
-45-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Service User Status Agent
The User Status Agent (USA) 270 tracks subscriber account status, maintaining
subscriber account status in the User Database 80 for administrative
monitoring, and
alerting subscribers of persistent problems experienced with their Service
account. It
is also responsible for extracting subscriber information from bounce/failure
messages retrieved from the system error mailbox.
The USA receives events from all transaction processing agents in the
application
(Content Retrieval Agent 280, Content Personalization Agent 295, and Content
Delivery Agent 290) for indication of subscriber transaction status updates.
Specific
responsibilities are:
updates subscriber status after content has been retrieved, after content has
been delivered, and whenever transactions are lost;
decides when particular subscribers are in an error state based on Service
Level Agreement parameters and status events;
removes subscribers from error state once Service Level Agreement
conditions are satisfied;
informs subscribers by sending notifications (e-mail messages) of problems
encountered while processing their e-mail; and
monitors subscriber account transactions and writes closed transactions to
the database.
Service Content Retrieval Agents
The Content Retrieval Agent ("CRA") 280 is a pool-able object. When given a
subscriber's content source description, it dispatches a pooled agent
appropriate for
the content media type. For example, a mailbox source is serviced by an e-mail
retrieval pooled agent, whereas a web content feed might be serviced by an RSS
retrieval pooled agent.
The pooled agent connects to that subscriber's content source and downloads
any
new content that it has not yet seen, which generally means content that has
appeared since the last poll. The method for doing this is different between
different
-46-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
content types and standard/proprietary access protocols, hence the need for
media-
specific pooled agents. After retrieval completes, the CRA 280 creates an
array of
content items and returns these to the Class of Service Agent 260 for further
processing. For example, the CRA receives a subscriber's mailbox information
from
the Class of Service Agent 260. It uses this information to connect via an e-
mail
retrieval protocol (such as secured IMAP or POP3, or a proprietary method such
as
Microsoft's MAPI) to the remote mail server (e.g. the Internet Mail Stores 120
shown
in Figure 1), and then downloads e-mail that has arrived later than the time
of the
previous poll from the subscriber's inbox (or other folder). (Note: for POP3
retrieval
the entire mail folder must be downloaded and filtered through to find the new
messages.) All content is left untouched on the server.
The standard CRA responsibilities are therefore:
to assign a pooled agent appropriate for the content type;
to connect to subscriber content sources;
to identify newly-arrived content by comparing to previous poll results;
to capture the new status of the content source;
to send the processing result back to the COSA; and
to send a retrieval status message to the User Status Agent.
For subscribers selecting a forwarded e-mail content source (where they
arrange to
have e-mail forwarded to a named Service mailbox), the COSA's request to the
CRA
includes the account information of the shared mailbox (i.e. as a 'special'
subscriber). The CRA e-mail pooled agent collects all of this mail, deletes it
from the
named Service mailbox, and returns it to the COSA for 'forwarded' processing.
A
similar approach is used for the 'error' mailbox, where the account
information of the
Service error mailbox (i.e. as another `special' subscriber) are processed and
returned to the COSA for `error' processing.
So the CRA responsibilities in these situations are:
to connect to the communal mailbox;
to retrieve all of the forwarded or error messages and delete it from the
server;
to get original sender (or mobile device address) from message bodies; and
-47-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
to send the processing results back to the COSA.
It will be appreciated that as new content types, media types, and content
sources
become available, the Service may be dynamically updated simply by the
specification and provision of new Content Retrieval Agents configured to
process
such new sources. Particularly, the agent framework is extensible for
operating such
new Content Retrieval Agents for retrieving content from the new sources.
Consequently, the remainder of the system may remain ignorant of and
indifferent to
the means by which the network content is retrieved for processing and
forwarding to
the mobile devices; even when a new Content Retrieval Agent is introduced, the
same Content Personalization Agents and Content Delivery Agents may be used.
In general, the Content Retrieval Agent 280 need not be used in connection
with the
system's alert broadcasting functionality, inasmuch as the content of the
alert
message is provided by the dispatcher via the Administration Console 60 as
described herein. However, it is contemplated that the Content Retrieval Agent
280
may be used in providing the alert broadcasting functionality of the system
10. For
example, the alert message may be constructed by the dispatcher so as to
incorporate certain content to be retrieved from an external source (e.g. a
graphic
image showing containing a map of an affected area, or showing a safe escape
route, or an audio file containing a police announcement). In such case, the
Broadcast Agent 297, described further hereinafter, may employ the Content
Retrieval Agent 280 to obtain such externally-sourced content for
incorporation into
the alert message before communicating the message to the target user device.
In
general, the Content Retrieval Agent 280 may generally be employed as a means
for
obtaining content from any source accessible by the system 10.
Service Content Personalization Agents
The Content Personalization Agent (CPA) 295 is a pool-able object used to
apply
user-preferences to filtering and formatting source content. When given a
subscriber's content from a specific source from the Content Retrieval Agent
280 via
the Class of Service Agent 260, the CPA dispatches a pooled agent appropriate
for
the content media type. For example, a mailbox source is serviced by an e-mail-
-48-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
aware pooled agent, whereas a web content feed or service alert might be
serviced
by an HTML-aware pooled agent. The CPA processes the set of content and
creates
a new array of device-dependent content to be delivered to the subscriber's
device.
Once it has finished processing it replaces the set of retrieved content in
the payload
object with the array of content to be forwarded. The payload is then
forwarded to
the Content Delivery Agent 290.
The CPA performs two general functions: determining whether a specific content
item is forwardable, and formatting the content for presentation on the
device.
Determining whether a message is forwardable is implemented in several stages.
First, the originator address is matched (with wildcard support) against an
'address
whitelist', where a match indicates the content should be forwarded. If the
`address
whitelist' is empty, the match is taken to be true. If no match is found, the
text of the
content (e.g. subject, body text, attachment titles, and optionally attachment
text and
metadata) is matched with wildcards against a `phrase whitelist'. If no match
is
found, the content is deemed non-forward able. If a match was found, the
originating
address is then matched against an `address blacklist' (again with wildcard
support),
and the text of the content is matched against a 'phrase blacklist'. If a
match is made
on either of the blacklists, the content is deemed non-forwardable. Otherwise
it will
be forwarded to the device. These filtering methods are extendible in several
ways.
For example, the whitelists and blacklists can be supplemented by Service-wide
lists
provided by a corporate compliance officer, or could be provided in the form
of
category matches where the CPA matches against word lists or Bayesian filters
if the
User Data specifies these, or even whitelists and blacklists provided on
centralized
Directory Servers (e.g. a subscriber's contact list in the corporate
directory).
If the content is forwardable, the CPA then formats it for presentation on the
device.
The formatted result can consist variously, depending on the device
capabilities,
channel capabilities, and user preference, of any of the following limited set
of
examples:
the entire content (including attachments);
just the passive or active text extracted from the content;
a summary of the text of the content;
translations of text from the content (or of summaries of the content);
-49-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
a list of any attachment names;
URLs pointing to a server that provides mobile rendering of attachments;
summaries of textual attachments;
translations of attachments (or of summaries of attachments);
rendered lower definition versions of images in, e.g. attachments; and/or
extracted portions of the content or attachments (e.g. first N bytes/N seconds
of a media stream).
In addition, the CPA can filter all or a part of the network content in
accordance with
the user preferences or otherwise.
After the set of content is processed, the CPA 295 forwards the collection
along with
the User Data to the Content Delivery Agent 290 for delivery if necessary.
It will be appreciated that, as new content and media types become available,
as
well as new methods for processing or personalization such content, the
Service
may be dynamically updated simply by the specification and provision of new
Content Personalization Agents configured to carry out such processing or
personalization. Particularly, the agent framework is extensible for operating
such
new Content Personalization Agents. Consequently, the remainder of the system
may remain ignorant of and indifferent to the means by which the retrieved
network
content is processed for forwarding to the mobile devices; even when a new
Content
Personalization Agent is introduced, the same Content Retrieval Agents and
Content
Delivery Agents may be used.
In performing its alert broadcasting functionality, the system 10 may be
configured
such that, in preparing the alert message and broadcast package, the
dispatcher
using the Administration Console 60 selects the alert message format with the
assistance of message templates which limit or otherwise predetermine the
alert
message content and form to be suitable for communication and
display/performance on a related target/user device type. Such templates may
be as
simple as specifying that the alert message may be text only, e.g. of a
limited
number of characters. In such case, the system 10 need not employ the Content
Personalization Agent 295. Alternatively, an alert message received from the
-50-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
Administration Console 60 may, at the request of the Broadcast Agent 297 or
otherwise, be processed by the Content Personalization Agent 295 for, e.g.
rendering the message displayable/performable on a given target user device,
or
context-appropriate to a target user device's logical or physical location.
Any of the
functionality described hereinabove in connection with the content retrieval
and
forwarding functionality of the system may be employed for such purpose.
Service Content Delivery Agents
The Content Delivery Agent (CDA) 290 is a pool-able agent. Its role is to
forward
processed content to the subscribers' devices. With the receipt of a payload
of
processed content from the Content Personalization Agent 295, the CDA 290
dispatches a pooled agent appropriate for the type of channel available to
reach the
device (e-mail, push e-mail, SMS, MMS, proprietary, etc.). The pooled agent
then
determines the device address (and other protocol parameters) from the User
Data
sent along with the content. It then sends off the processed content to the
device.
For example an e-mail-enabled device receives the content via an SMTP gateway
(e.g. an SMTP MTA 140 as shown in Figure 1), and an SMS-enabled device
receives the content via an SMS gateway (e.g. a Service Provider SMS Gateway
150 also as shown in Figure 1). The CDA 290 notes pertinent details such as
the
content originator's address and if applicable, the SMS ID for storing in the
record of
the transaction that is stored in the User Database 80. (This is used by the
`SMS/MMS reply' account mechanism.)
When processed content is sent to a subscriber's device, the `from' and/or
`reply to'
addresses are set to be those of the original sender where appropriate. For
example,
with e-mail forwarding this allows the subscriber to reply to the originator
directly
from his device. For the example where e-mail is forwarded via an SMS gateway,
the
reply-to address maps to one of a set of specific SMS addresses which forward
the
received reply along with the device SMS address to one of a set of special
named
mailboxes for replies. These mailboxes are serviced by special `SMS/MMS reply'
subscriber accounts on the Service, where the replies are retrieved and then
matched to the subscriber and forwarded to the originator by the Class of
Service
Agent (COSA).
-51 -
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
When personalized content is too large for an individual device message (e.g.
for
SMS one message is only approximately 150 characters, or approximately 15
words), the content may be sent in several messages, subject to user
personalization in the device definition. Examples of personalization include
maximum message size, maximum number of separate messages, and whether or
not content should be truncated to fit.
Error responses from the device are handled in protocol-specific ways.
Protocols
such as SMS and e-mail may experience immediate or delayed errors. Immediate
errors are handled either by attempting delivery to an alternate device if one
is
configured (which requires special error handling by the COSA if the alternate
device
has a different delivery channel), or by the immediate initiation of a `lost
transaction'
message to the User Status Agent or by marking the transaction as failed back
to the
COSA. Delayed errors, e.g. those caused by an e-mail bounce or a device being
unreachable for several hours, are handled by the `error' subscriber account
method.
Secure delivery of content to the mobile device is achieved in a protocol-
specific
manner. For e-mail-enabled devices, if the device supports encrypted e-mail
the
subscriber provides his public key to the Service upon identification of the
mobile
device, and at the same time receives the Service public key from the
subscription
process. (An unencrypted e-mail containing the key is sent to the device.)
When
delivering the content, the CDA encrypts the mail. For SMS- or MMS-enabled
devices, a similar mechanism is used, but a specific client plug-in is
required on the
device. This plug-in also enables the concatenation of multiple messages
together to
form a larger message than would otherwise be allowed given the small size of
SMS
messages. In this case the CDA encrypts the entire personalized content,
sending it
in parts to the device, where each part is sequentially tagged for parsing by
the plug-
in. After receiving all parts, the plug-in decrypts the message for display to
the
subscriber.
Such a device plug-in can be used to provide further functionality, such as
recognizing 'active tags' that identify the telephone number or Instant
Message chat
handle of the message originator. Active tags can also be used to trigger a
user
-52-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
action such as payment for a product or service. For devices enabled with such
a
plug-in, the CDA attaches the appropriate tag(s) for the originator if it
matches one in
a personal contact list included in the User Data provided by the COSA. When
the
plug-in detects the presence of one of these tags, it would enable the
subscriber to
initiate a voice call or IM chat at the push of a button while reading the
forwarded
content.
It will be appreciated that, as the capabilities of mobile devices evolve, and
as the
modes of communication change, the Service may be easily dynamically updated
by
the specification and provision of new Content Delivery Agents configured to
carry
out such delivery. Particularly, the agent framework is extensible for
operating such
new Content Delivery Agents. Consequently, the remainder of the system may
remain ignorant of and indifferent to the means by which retrieved and
processed
network content is forwarded to mobile devices; even when a new Content
Delivery
Agent is introduced, the same Content Retrieval Agents and Content
Personalization
Agents may be used.
In performing alert broadcasting, the system 10 may employ the Content
Delivery
Agent 290 as described above, wherein, e.g. the Broadcast Agent 297 delivers
an
alert message (which may have been processed by the Content Personalization
Agent 295, as described above) to the Content Delivery Agent 290 for
communication to the target user devices. Alternatively, and as discussed
below, the
Content Delivery Agent 290 need not be used for such purpose, and the alert
message may instead be communicated to the target user devices otherwise (e.g.
by
a pooled Broadcast Agent 297 generated for such purpose).
Service Broadcast Agents
The Broadcast Agent (BA) 297 is a pool-able agent. In general, the Broadcast
Agent
297 may be configured to perform all or a part of the functionality of the
delivery
module 730 of the general system 710. Its role is to deliver broadcast alert
messages to target devices. With the receipt of a message payload from the
Administration Console 60 via the Management Adapter 65 and Management Agent
240, as described hereinabove, the BA 297 may retrieve the targeted device
-53-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
addresses from the information sent along with the message content. These
addresses are retrieved variously from the User Manager Agent 250, from the
Directory Retrieval Agent 570, or directly from local networking equipment
(such as a
WiFi controller), as described hereinabove. The BA 297 then passes the message
and target device addresses to sets of the pooled agents it manages. In an
embodiment where the functionality of the specific delivery sub-modules 800,
810,
820, 830, 860 of the general system 710 is implemented in the BA, then a
number of
different sub-types of pooled agents are activated in order to communicate
with any
particular device based on the protocol or communications path required to
reach
that device, e.g. SMS, MMS, SMTP, IP (proprietary), voice (proprietary/VoIP).
For
example, a small number of SMTP-capable pooled agents can reach a large number
of e-mail-accessible devices, whereas a large number of IP-capable pooled
agents
would be used to reach a large number of WiFi-accessible devices.
Alternatively, as
described above, the BA 297 may engage the Content Delivery Agent 290 to
forward
the alert message to the specified target devices.
Similarly, the Broadcast Response Agent 275 is also a pool-able agent. The
Broadcast Response Agent 275 may implement all or part of the functionality of
the
response handler 760 of the general system 710. Alternatively, such
functionality
may be implemented variously in other agents and described hereinbelow.
When an alert message to be broadcast is received by the BA 297, it retrieves
the
addresses of recipients' target devices. Recipients are specified in several
ways, e.g.
by attributes within the Service Database 80 (e.g. Service ID, wireless
carrier used,
e-mail source domain, etc.); by attributes within a Directory 127 (e.g. a
corporate
directory providing location, membership of a distribution list, etc.); by
associations in
a network infrastructure (e.g. accessible through the Communications
Interfaces
125, such as an association with an access point, membership in a domain,
etc.).
For database-related attributes, the BA 297 may request the targeted
subscriber
address list (e-mail addresses and/or IP addresses and/or DNS-resolvable
hostnames and/or MAC addresses and/or phone numbers) from the User Manager
Agent (UMA) 250. This list may optionally include subscriber-specified device
priorities, which the BA 297 may use to determine which devices to target for
each
subscriber. For directory-based attributes, the BA 297 may request the address
list
-54-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
(hostnames and/or e-mail addresses and/or phone numbers) from a Directory 127.
For networked-associated attributes, the BA 297 requests the address list (IP
addresses and/or hostnames) from a Directory 127 and/or Communications
Interfaces 125 (e.g. wireless network controllers). This may include a request
for
mapping MAC addresses received from the UMA 250 into the currently-assigned IP
address.
The BA 297 may also combine attributes to determine the target device
addresses.
For example, a broadcast alert message may be targeted at the SMS devices of
all
subscribers whose recorded device MAC addresses are associated with a specific
set of WiFi access points. In such case, the BA 297 would match MAC addresses
for
given access points retrieved from a wireless LAN controller against MAC
addresses
associated with subscriber data returned from the UMA 250 to determine the
list of
SMS addresses to target.
The following provides details of the functionality of the Broadcast Agent 297
when it
implements the functionality of the delivery sub-modules 800, 810, 820, 830,
860 of
the general system 710 rather than employing the Content Delivery Agent 290,
as
described above.
For delivery to e-mail addresses, the BA 297 provides the complete set of
target e-
mail addresses to a single SMTP-capable pooled agent. This SMTP pooled agent
may divide the large list evenly into a number of smaller lists, based on a
locally-
configured maximum list size, then initiates an e-mail to the local MTA (e-
mail
gateway), blind-copying each of the recipients in the smaller lists. The MTA
then
transfers the e-mail to the destination e-mail as efficiently as possible
based on the
number of simultaneous transfers enabled on the MTA. The pooled agent lists
success/failure for each e-mail address delivery in a report back to the
Management
Agent 240 upon completion. In another embodiment, the Broadcast Response Agent
275 may receive or otherwise obtain responding e-mail messages from the target
devices for reporting to the Management Agent 240.
For delivery to SMS/MMS addresses, the BA 297 divides the list of targeted
phone
numbers into smaller lists by carrier, each of up to a configured maximum
size.
-55-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
These smaller lists are then divided up amongst the available SMS/MMS-capable
pooled agents, up to a configured maximum. (Such a maximum allows for the
option
of broadcasting a multiplicity of different alert messages simultaneously.)
Each
pooled agent then initiates a connection to the carrier gateway (e.g. the
Service
Provider SMS/MMS Gateways 150) and initiates transfer of the messages. The
transfer may be staged based on previously known characteristics of the
carrier
gateway traffic handling capability. The pooled agent lists success/failure
for each
SMS/MMS delivery in a report back to the Management Agent 240, periodically if
delivery is over an extended time period, and upon completion. In one
embodiment,
the Broadcast Response Agent 275 is configured to receive responding SMS/MMS
messages from the target user devices for reporting to the Management Agent
240.
For delivery by voice to telephony-based devices, the BA 297 divides the large
list
evenly across a pre-configured number of available dialer-capable pooled
agents,
e.g. one agent per dialer, up to a configured maximum to allow for
simultaneous
broadcasts. These pooled agents then request their pre-configured external
dialers
(e.g. in the Communications Interfaces 125) to initiate outbound voice calls
over
trunks or VoIP (SIP) connections, using a voice-encoded message payload. The
dialer then calls each recipient, transcoding the voice-based message to the
end-
users when each call is answered. The dialer can optionally leverage DTMF
receivers to allow recipients to confirm receipt. The dialer agent lists
success/failure
for each call in a report back to the pooled agent upon completion. The pooled
agent
then passes this report back to the Management Agent 240. In another
embodiment,
the Broadcast Response Agent 275 receives information from the dialer
indicating
success/failure for each call and reports the same to the Management Agent
240.
For delivery to IP-networked devices, the BA 297 divides the list of IP
addresses
and/or hostnames evenly amongst the available IP-capable pooled agents, again
up
to a configured maximum to ensure support of multiple simultaneous broadcasts.
In
the case that the system employs alert message authentication, the BA 297
first
requests a tag and private key from the Key Server Agent 298, and uses the key
to
encrypt a part of the message, which may be the current time. The tag and
encrypted time are passed along with the message, any attachments, and the
target
address list to the pooled agents. The pooled agents then attempt to connect
to each
-56-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
IP device in turn on a well-known port, waiting a configured amount of time
for a
response. When a device accepts the connection, the pooled agent transfers the
message payload, closes the connection and initiates a connection to the next
device in its list. For any unreachable devices, the pooled agent retries the
connection a configurable number of times before giving up. This is in case
the
device is moving in-and-out of a specific wireless zone, or is otherwise
temporarily
unable to respond. The pooled agent lists success/failure for each networked
device
in a report back to the Management Agent 240 upon completion. In another
embodiment, the Broadcast Response Agent 275 receives information from the
target devices or intermediating communications nodes or interfaces indicating
success/failure for each attempted communication, and reports the same to the
Management Agent 240.
The agent resident on the IP-networked devices may be pre-configured to start
up
when the device operating system starts up, and is preferably configured to
listen on
a well-known port for incoming connections. When a message payload is
retrieved
from the BA 297, the device agent then initiates an IP connection to the pre-
configured Key Server Agent 298 (discussed further below), and passes the tag
provided by the BA 297 pooled agent. The Key Server Agent 298 responds with a
public key, which the device agent then uses to decrypt the message timestamp.
If
the timestamp decrypts successfully and is within a pre-configured window of
the
current time on the device, the device agent displays the message to the user,
optionally with a warning bell or tone. This mechanism is intended to defeat
sniffing,
replay, and address spoofing attacks.
This public key method can be used for any data-networking-enabled devices,
including smartphones, local wireless handsets, mobile/non-mobile PCs, etc.
Other
devices (like SMS/MMS-only celiphones) can be protected at a lower level by
pre-
configuring symmetric keys (or a list of symmetric keys to be used in order).
In this
case, the agent resident on the device would decrypt the message timestamp
using
the locally-stored key instead of requesting the key from the Key Server Agent
298.
As in the public key case, the timestamp would then be compared to the local
device
time, and the message would only be displayed if the time matches within a
-57-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
configured window. Devices without an agent will provide the message to the
end-
user without any authentication.
Note that each pooled agent can be implemented in a protocol-specific way as
described above, or can be implemented to adapt to any protocol requested of
it.
Service Key Server Agents
The Key Server Agent (KSA) 298 provides a method for recipients to
authenticate
messages received from the Service. It is primarily seen as a method to
protect
devices from false alert broadcasts as described above, but could also be used
to
securely encrypt and authenticate single-user content notifications.
The KSA 298 maintains a time-sensitive list of key-pairs, indexed by tags. The
KSA
298 creates a key-pair using public key algorithms along with its indexing tag
upon
request of the Broadcast Agent 297 (or the target device) when it is preparing
to
originate a message. The KSA 298 responds with the tag and the private key,
which
the requesting agent uses to encrypt all or part of the message. The KSA 298
maintains the key-pair for a pre-configured time period, usually on the order
of
minutes. A short life reduces the chance of attempts to playback sniffed keys
in order
to provide false positive authentication of broadcasts.
The KSA 298 also listens on a well-known port for external connections from
devices, receiving a tag and responding with the corresponding public key, if
it still
exists. Devices use this key to decrypt the encrypted part of the message
received
from the transmitting agent. If the key doesn't exist or does not correctly
decrypt, the
message is not displayed to the device end-user.
Service Broadcast Response Agents
The Broadcast Response Agent 275 is a pool-able agent that collects responses
to
broadcasts (receipt confirmations). It may be employed to perform all or part
of the
functionality of the response handler 760 of the general system 710, as
described
above. In general, the Broadcast Response Agent 275 may be employed to receive
-58-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
or otherwise obtain response messages from the target user devices which
acknowledge receipt of the communicated alert message and which may also
provide any desired information to the Broadcast Response Agent 275.
For example, the Broadcast Response Agent may collect responses from
asynchronously-connected end-user devices (e.g. SMS/MMS and e-mail devices).
It
may create pooled agents to listen for incoming SMS responses from, e.g. the
Service Provider SMS/MMS Gateways 150, and periodically poll a pre-configured
e-
mail response mailbox, created and maintained for such purpose (e.g. in the
Corporate Mail Stores 110), for end-user responses (or may request the Content
Retrieval Agent 280 to do so). Response confirmations may be sent to the
Management Agent 240 for collection and transmission to the Administration
Console 60 for display and reporting.
Information Flow - Content Retrieval/Forwarding Functionality
Figure 6 shows a schematic diagram illustrating the flow of information
through the
system in connection with the content retrieval and forwarding functionality
of the
system. Information flows in the Figure are shown as numbered open arrows and
are
referenced hereinafter by inclusion in brackets of the number identifying the
flow.
The shaded arrows in the Figure generally show information flow between the
various components. In general, where a subscriber profile specifies external
content
to be accessed by the system, content arriving at such sources will not be
retrieved
by the system until the sources are polled by the system. As described above,
the
Class of Service Agent (COSA) 260 is configured to schedule the polling of
user
content sources in accordance with the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and
other
parameters stored in the User Database 80. The COSA 260 therefore accesses the
User Database 80 periodically via the User Manager 250 (flow [1]) in order to
determine and update such scheduling.
When the polling of a subscriber's content sources is scheduled to occur, the
COSA
260 notifies the Content Retrieval Agent (CRA) Pool Manager 280 (via the
Whiteboard 210, as is all inter-agent communication) (flow [2]) to retrieve
content
from the configured sources. The message sent to the CRA Pool Manager 280
-59-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
includes the subscriber User Data retrieved from the User Database 80. The CRA
Pool Manager 280 then selects the next available pooled agent of the
appropriate
media type to perform the retrieval. The content retrieved is generally left
untouched
(i.e. a copy is retrieved by the CRA 280), but in appropriate cases (e.g. e-
mail), if the
subscriber preferences so direct the content may optionally be deleted from
the
source. Once the CRA pooled agent is finished its work, the CRA Pool Manager
280
then returns a collection of content to the COSA (flow [3]) (again, via the
Whiteboard
210) and sends a status update to the User Status Agent (USA) 270 (flow [4]).
The COSA 260 in turn then forwards the retrieved content along with the User
Data
to the Content Personalization Agent (CPA) Pool Manager 295 (flow [5]) for
processing. A media-appropriate CPA pooled agent is selected, which analyzes
the
individual content for relevance to the subscriber (per the preferences
specified in
the User Data), and then, when relevant, summarizes or otherwise formats the
content as a separate message for the subscriber's device. The CPA 295 then
forwards the collection of messages along with the User Data to the Content
Delivery
Agent (CDA) Pool Manager 290 (flow [6]) and sends a status update to the USA
(flow [7]).
The CDA Pool Manager 290 then selects a channel-appropriate pooled agent to
deliver any forwardable content to the subscriber's device. The pooled agent
formats
the channel `envelope' (e.g. SMTP protocol sender and reply-to header, SMS
header
originator header, etc.) to indicate an appropriate return address, allowing
the
subscriber to respond to the message if appropriate. Upon completion of
transmission, the CDA 290 sends notification to both COSA 260 (flow [8]) and
the
User Status Agent 270 (flow [9]) (for monitoring of subscriber account
status).
When the COSA 260 receives notification of completion of that request, the
account
is checked back into the database.
Timer expirations at any stage of transaction processing will lead to a
transaction
being flagged as having been `lost'. Depending upon the protocol scenario, the
timeouts can require that a pooled agent be forcefully terminated (and then re-
incarnated) by the Pool Manager (e.g. a timeout when retrieving e-mail from a
POP3
-60-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
mailbox). Smarter protocols provide their own timers, allowing the pooled
agent to
recover. In both cases, the `transaction lost' message is sent to the USA, and
the
appropriate response message is sent to the COSA to indicate the transaction
has
completed (albeit unsuccessfully).
Many subscriber transactions can be in process in the Service simultaneously,
bound by the high water marks of the numbers of content retrieval, processing,
and
delivery agents. Each transaction follows the information flow described
above.
Embodiment Options
Although various exemplary embodiments of the invention have been disclosed,
it
should be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and
modifications
can be made which will achieve some of the advantages of the invention without
departing from the true scope of the invention.
Embodiments of the invention may be implemented in any conventional computer
programming language. For example, preferred embodiments may be implemented
in a procedural programming language (e.g. "C") or an object oriented language
(e.g.
"C++"). Alternative embodiments of the invention may be implemented as pre-
programmed hardware elements, other related components, or as a combination of
hardware and software components.
Embodiments can be implemented as a computer program product for use with a
computer system. Such implementation may include a series of computer
instructions fixed either on a tangible medium, such as a computer readable
medium
(e.g., a diskette, CD-ROM, ROM, or fixed disk) or transmittable to a computer
system, via a modem or other interface device, such as a communications
adapter
connected to a network over a medium. The medium may be either a tangible
medium (e.g., optical or electrical communications lines) or a medium
implemented
with wireless techniques (e.g., microwave, infrared or other transmission
techniques). The series of computer instructions embodies all or part of the
functionality previously described herein. Those skilled in the art should
appreciate
that such computer instructions can be written in a number of programming
-61-
CA 02707575 2010-06-01
WO 2009/070882 PCT/CA2008/002119
languages for use with many computer architectures or operating systems.
Furthermore, such instructions may be stored in any memory device, such as
semiconductor, magnetic, optical or other memory devices, and may be
transmitted
using any communications technology, such as optical, infrared, microwave, or
other
transmission technologies. It is expected that such a computer program product
may
be distributed as a removable medium with accompanying printed or electronic
documentation (e.g., shrink wrapped software), preloaded with a computer
system
(e.g., on system ROM or fixed disk), or distributed from a server over the
network
(e.g., the Internet or World Wide Web). Of course, some embodiments of the
invention may be implemented as a combination of both software (e.g., a
computer
program product) and hardware. Still other embodiments of the invention may be
implemented as entirely hardware, or entirely software (e.g., a computer
program
product).
It is to be appreciated that the section headings appearing hereinbefore do
not limit
the scope of the invention as described but are merely intended to organize
the
description for the sake of clarity.
With the foregoing exemplary embodiments having been disclosed, it will be
apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications
can be
made to appropriately suit the needs and objectives of another application and
still
achieve the advantages of the invention; all such changes and modifications
are
intended to fall within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims
that follow.
-62-
