Granted Patent B1

US 8,949,840 · App. 11/951,394 · Granted Feb 3, 2015

Abstract

Claims (15)

1. A method for message delivery comprising:

receiving a plurality of message delivery jobs, each message delivery job comprising at least one message and at least one message recipient;

determining a delivery timeframe for each message delivery job;

assigning each message delivery job to one of a plurality of job queues, each of said plurality of job queues being associated with a delivery timeframe; and

processing said job queues;

wherein processing a job queue comprises:

selecting a job in said job queue;

determining a number of ports required to ensure that each message of said message delivery job is delivered to its respective recipient within said delivery timeframe; and

assigning said determined number of ports to said message delivery job,

wherein the determining of the number of ports required is based on a number of jobs in the job queue, an estimated time to complete each job, an expiration time for each job, a service level for each job, and an acceptable delivery window for each job.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein processing a job queue further comprises determining whether a message delivery job in said job queue will be completed within its respective delivery timeframe and reassigning said message delivery job to a higher priority job queue upon determining that said message delivery job will not be completed within its respective delivery timeframe.

3. A method according to claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a further message delivery job;

assigning said further message delivery job to a priority queue having a higher priority than said selected message delivery job; and

re-assigning one or more ports assigned to said selected message delivery job to said further message delivery job.

Assignments (12)