Patent · US Expired

Changing-urgency-dependent message or call delivery

US5933477A · kind A · utility

228Cited by
5References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJan 22, 1997
Grant dateAug 3, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 22, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04M2203/2016
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Communications (e.g., messages or calls) are treated with increasing urgency as their "expiration" time approaches. An expiration time is specified (FIG. 2 or 3) for a communication by its originator or some other entity and may be content-determined. Delivery of the communication to a recipient (e.g., an addressee or an agent of the addressee) is then attempted (FIG. 5) according to instructions (604-608) specified (FIG. 4) by the recipient (602). Each instruction corresponds to a different interval of time (612) prior to the expiration time of communications. During each present time interval prior to the expiration time that is associated with a communication, delivery of an undelivered said communication is attempted according to the delivery instruction that corresponds to the present time interval (FIG. 5). This technique can be combined with a priority-based delivery technique: each time interval prior to the expiration time may have a different priority (610) associated therewith, and the communication may also have an associated priority, whereupon the delivery is attempted either according to the instruction that corresponds to the priority that is associated with the pre…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.