Real-time messaging method and apparatus

摘要

A system and method for the late-biding of time-based media in real-time With late binding, the sender may create time-based media before or at the same time an active delivery route to the recipient is discovered. As soon as the route becomes available, the media is transmitted. The existing DNS and email infrastructure is possibly used for route discovery, while any real-time transmission protocol may be used for the actual delivery of the media. “Progressive” emails may also be used for the real-time delivery of time-based media.

主权项

1. A method performed at a node on a communication network for progressively receiving, storing and forwarding a message from a sender to a recipient over the communication network, comprising:
receiving at the node an identifier contained in a message header of the message having a message body, the message header received at the node ahead of the message body, the identifier identifying an intended recipient of the message; discovering at the node, when the message header is received, at least a partial delivery route for delivering the message to the recipient over the communication network from a lookup result of the identifier; progressively receiving voice media contained in the message body as the voice media is progressively transmitted by the sender; progressively and persistently storing at the node the voice media contained in the message body as the voice media is received; and progressively transmitting the voice media of the message to the recipient as the voice media is received and persistently stored at the node and as the delivery route for delivering the voice media to the recipient over the communication network is discovered.