Message management with priority assigned in dependence on message type

摘要

A message management method and apparatus carrying out the steps of, receiving a number of messages;
categorising each received message as being in one of a plurality of groups;
recording each message together with a respective associated delay value;
periodically changing the delay value associated with each recorded message, the rate of change of delay value being different for messages in different groups;
selecting a message to be processed based upon a comparison of the delay values associated with different messages;
sending said selected message to be processed, and removing the record of the sent message and the associated delay value.