GB2484116A

GB2484116A - Distributed electronic communication involving dividing a message into components and sending them to separate delivery servers

Info

Publication number: GB2484116A
Application number: GB1016421.8A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Chokan Laumulin; Iskender Syrgabekov; Yerkin Zadauly
Original assignee: Extas Global Ltd
Current assignee: Extas Global Ltd
Priority date: 2010-09-29
Filing date: 2010-09-29
Publication date: 2012-04-04
Anticipated expiration: 2030-09-29
Also published as: GB201016421D0; GB2484116B

Abstract

A system (200) and method for transmitting, sending and receiving electronic communications (e.g. e-mail) comprises : a sender (20) which divides a message into a plurality of message components and sends each of the plurality of message components as a separate electronic communication message ; a plurality of electronic communication receiving servers (30) which receive separate ones of the electronic communication messages, and a receiver (210) which receives the plurality of messages, combines them to form the original communication and forwards it to the recipient (40). The method is used to improve security when sending messages.

Description

DISTRIBUTED ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

?ield of the Invention The present invention relates to a system and method for sending and receiving electronic communications and in particular, electronic mail.

Background of the Invention

Electronic mail or email is a well known method of exchanging digital messages across the Internet or other computer networks. A user may compose an email using a personal computer or terminal specifying a recipient or recipient address and message. The user then sends the email from his or her own terminal or personal computer across the network or the Internet, to an email server. The user may have an account or mailbox on the email server for either or both sending and receiving email messages.

Once the email server receives the email from the user it is sent using a standardised transfer protocol such as the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) across the network or the Internet to the recipient's own email server for which they hold an account or mailbox.

When the recipient connects to their own email server, any waiting emails may be viewed or downloaded onto their terminal or personal computer. There are several alternative methods of sending and receiving email including the use of email clients such as Microsoft (RTM) Outlook and Apple OSX (RTM) Mail. These clients are email applications resident on a user's personal computer (or other device) and connect with the email server as and when required.

For receiving emails, the email server may operate alternative protocols such as the Post Office Protocol (POP) or Internet message access protocol (IMAP). These are the two most common Internet standard protocols for email retrieval but others may be used.

The email message itself may comprise header information including information regarding the sender and receiver, a message body, which is the message itself and optionally attachments in the form of computer readable files sent along with the email. However, email is generally a text-based facility with any formatting sent in the form of a text-based mark-up language such as HTML.

As the recipient does not need to be directly connected to the sender of an email message, it is not possible to determine whether or not a receiver received the email unless a read receipt is provided from the receiver.

Furthermore, it is possible and likely that a certain proportion of email messages are lost in transit for various reasons. As email messages are sent as plain text across the public Internet it is relatively easy for these email messages to be intercepted and read or altered en route.

Therefore, certain schemes for encrypting email messages are used and these require additional processing at the sending a receiving ends. Nevertheless, it is still possible for these encrypted email messages to be lost before being received by the recipient.

Therefore, there is required a system of sending and receiving electronic mail that overcomes these problems.

Swnmary of the Invention An original message that would otherwise form the body of an electronic communication such as an email, for example (or the entire electronic communication itself) is divided into several message components. Each of these message components forms the body of several electronic communication messages for delivery to a particular recipient or group of recipients. Once received, these message components are taken from each of the electronic communication messages and recombined to form the original message. There are several alternative ways of dividing the content including bitwise, byte wise and character-by-character. Without all of the electronic communication message it is difficult or impossible to reconstruct the original message. Therefore, the chance of successful interception by a third party or unauthorised access is reduced.

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of sending an electronic communication comprising the steps of: dividing a message into a plurality of message components; sending each of the plurality of message components as a plurality of electronic communication messages for delivery to a recipient for recombination to form the message. Therefore, security and reliability may be improved.

Preferably, the sending step further comprises sending each electronic communication message in the plurality of electronic communication messages to a separate communication delivery server. This further improves security as each component is delivered separately. This may be by using separate email (or other forms of electronic communication) accounts with the same provider or using separate providers or a combination of both.

Preferably, the communication delivery server is a simple mail transfer protocol, SMTP, server. Other server types may be used.

Optionally, the sending step further comprises delivering each of the plurality of electronic communication messages to a separate communication receiving server such as an email server, for example.

Preferably, the method may further comprise the step of extracting the message components from the electronic communication messages and combining the message components to form the message.

Preferably, the recipient may extract and combine the message components to form the message. This may also be done by a separate entity or process.

Optionally, the dividing step may further comprise: generating parity data f or groups of two or more of the plurality of message components such that any one or more of the plurality of message components may be recreated from the remaining message components and the parity data, wherein the parity data are sent as one or more further electronic communication messages for delivery to the recipient. This improves reliability in case some message components are lost or corrupted.

Optionally, the dividing step may further comprise the steps of: dividing the message components into further message components; and generating further parity data for groups of two or more of the further message components such that any one or more of the further message components may be recreated from the remaining further message components and the further parity data. These further message components and further parity data are then sent as the plurality of electronic communication messages (e.g. separate emails).

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of receiving an electronic communication comprising the steps of: receiving a plurality of electronic communication messages each comprising one of a plurality of message components; and combining the plurality of message components to form a message.

Optionally, the method may further comprise the steps of receiving parity data generated from groups of two or more of the plurality of message components; and generating any missing message components from the received parity data and message components to form the message.

Optionally, the message components may be recreatable using associated parity data generated from the message components, and further wherein each message component and parity data is sub-divided into related message subsets, the related message subsets being recreatable from associated further parity data generated from the related message subsets, wherein the message subsets and further parity data are received as separate electronic communication messages, the method may further comprise the steps of: a) receiving some of the message subsets and further parity data; b) recreating any missing message subsets by executing a parity function across unrelated further message subsets and further parity data; c) combining related message subsets and any recreated related message subsets to form one or more combined message components; d) combining the combined components and recreated components to form the message.

Optionally, the method may further comprise the steps of: bl) recreating any missing further parity data by executing a parity function across unrelated message subsets, wherein the unrelated messages subsets are either received message subsets or recreated message subsets; and/or b2) recreating any missing message subsets by executing a parity function across related message subsets and the recreated further parity data. The parity fuction may be the XOR function, for example.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of transmitting an electronic communication message (e.g. email message) comprising the steps of: dividing a message into a plurality of message components; sending each of the plurality of message components as an electronic communication message to a separate communication sending server; receiving the plurality of electronic communication messages at an electronic communication receiving server; and combining the plurality of message components to form the message.

Optionally, the plurality of message components may be sent using separate transmitting servers (e.g. SMTP servers) and/or received using separate receiving servers (e.g. POP servers) According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for transmitting electronic communications comprising: a sender arranged to divide a message into a plurality S of message components and send each of the plurality of message components as an electronic communication message; a plurality of electronic communication receiving servers arranged to receive each of the electronic communication messages; and a receiver arranged to receive the plurality of electronic mail and combine the plurality of message components to form the message. Optionally, the system may include a plurality of electronic communication transmitting servers (SMPT) instead or as well as the receiving server (pOP).

The methods may be implemented using a computer or a device including a processor programmed or dedicated to perform the method.

Dedicated apparatus, such as for instance, a mobile device, programmable integrated circuit or other hardware may be used to execute any of these methods.

It should be noted that any feature described above may be used with any particular aspect or embodiment of the invention.

Brief description of the Figures

The present invention may be put into practice in a number of ways and embodiments will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawi°ngs, in which: FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a system for sending a message as message components, given by way of

example only;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a further system for sending electronic communications, given by way of

example only;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a further system for sending electronic communications, given by way of

example only;

FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of a method for sending electronic communications; FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram the message of FIG. 1 split into message components and parity data; FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of each of the message components and parity data of FIG. 5 split into further message components and further parity data; FIG. 7 shows a diagram illustrating the parity relationships of received message components and parity data received; FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a further system for sending a message as message components, given by way of

example only;

FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a further system for sending a message as message components, given by way of

example only;

FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a further system for sending a message as message components, given by way of

example only;

FIG. 11 shows a schematic diagram of a further system S for sending a message as message components, given by way of

example only; and

FIG. 12 shows a schematic diagram of a further system for sending a message as message components, given by way of

example only.

It should be noted that the figures are illustrated for simplicity and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Detailed description of thepref erred embodiments

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a system for sending electronic communications such as email messages from a sender device 20 to a receiver device 40. The sender device 20 and receiver device 40 may be a personal computer, portable computer, mobile device, terminal, mobile telephone or any other suitable apparatus. A user may compose a message using the sender device 20. The message may include any or all of text, images, video, audio, documents or software as attachments or as the message itself. Once composed, the message may be divided into message components with each message component forming the body of a separate electronic message or email. These individual electronic (e.g. email) messages each have the same recipient address (or other identifier) and are sent to separate communication or email servers 30 across a network 25, such as the Internet.

Each of the separate communication servers 30 may have an account with the sender or may be an open mail relay, -10 -which does not require a specific user account in order to forward communication messages. These communication servers then direct the received electronic communication messages to the receiver device 40 across network connections 35, which may also utilise the Internet but may use other networks such as mobile communication networks (e.g. GSM). These network connections are shown as simplified arrows in Fig. 1 but may pass through several routers or switches en route.

Once all of the electronic communication messages are received at the receiver device 40 they may be combined to form the original message. Failure to receive one or more of the message components may make it difficult or impossible to recreate the original message. Therefore, an algorithm to improve reliability and reproducibility in the event of message component loss may be used. For example, the algorithm described in the context of data transmission in WO2O1O/026366 may be used. This technique is described at a high level below with reference to Figs. 5, 6 and 7.

Fig. 2 shows an alternative embodiment to that of Fig. 1. Similar features are provided with the same reference numerals. In the system 100 shown in Fig. 2, the communication servers 30 do not send the message components directly to the receiver device 40. Instead, the communication servers 30 send each message component to one of a set of further communication servers 110 that each hold an account for the receiver. For example, the communication servers 30 may be SMTP servers each holding an account of the sender (or acting as an open relay) and the further communication servers 110 may be POP servers each with an account registered or associated with the receiver. The communication servers 30 may direct message traffic using connections 120 across a network such as the Internet.

-11 -Fig. 3 shows a further alternative embodiment. In the system 200 shown in Fig. 3, the message components sent as separate electronic communications are received by a central server 210. This central server 210 may perform some validation or checking of the received message components to determine if they are present, intact and/or have been tampered with. Where any message components are missing, incomplete or untrustworthy then the central server 210 may regenerated these particular message components. This regeneration may use parity data received as further electronic communications together with any of the recovered message components using the scheme described in W020l0/026366 or with reference to Figs. 5, 6 and 7 (see below).

Once all required message components are received or regenerated by the central server 210 they are sent to the receiver device 40 either as the original message or as separate components to be combined within the receiver device 40. Therefore, the central server 210 can carry out some or all of the processing in advance of receipt by the receiver device 40.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of a method 300 for sending messages according to an embodiment. A message is created at step 310. The message is split into message components at step 320 using a suitable splitting or dividing routine such as that described in W02010/026366. Separate electronic communication messages are formed or created from each of the message components and any parity data generated from them at step 330. The body of these separate electronic communication messages may comprise the message components. These electronic communication messages are sent at step 340 using a suitable sending protocol such as

SMTP, for example.

-12 -At step 350, the separate electronic communication messages are received using a suitable message receiving protocol such as POP or IMAP, for example. The message components are then extracted from the message bodies of each received electronic message at step 360. The original message is regenerated at step 370. If all message component messages are successfully received then this may be a simple concatenation procedure. Otherwise, any missing message components may be regenerated as part of this step using the remaining (received) message components and any parity data also received as separate electronic communications.

Fig. 5 shows schematically the splitting of a message into message components labelled as Left L and labelled as Right R with parity data labelled as the Check C. Figure 6 indicates how these message components and parity data may be further split and divided to a second level where each of the Left, Right and Check data sets are themselves split into Left, Right and Check message components (for example LL, LR and LC). This results in nine separate message components, at the second cascade or level that may be sent as message bodies in separate electronic communications.

Figure 7 illustrates possible ways in which message components may be regenerated and how each potential missing message component may be recreated from existing message components in the example where the data is split to a second level and wherein each splitting splits a message component (data) into two with a single parity data being generated (e.g. using the logical function XOR).

Possible recreation techniques described in WO2O1O/026366 are shown at the end of the horizontal arrows.

According to this technique, associated message components are those that directly form from a split component at a -13 -previous level or were generated as parity data from these split components (although it can be seen that the parity data may be created from message components outside of its own group). Regeneration possibilities available due to the cross parity or mutual parity comparison techniques are shown for this particular example at the end of the vertical (dashed) arrows. This provides additional resilience to data loss as more possibilities are available using this technique than that described, for example, in W020l0/026366.

The message transmitting 30 and receiving 40 servers may or may not require particular information regarding the nature of the messages that are sent. To these servers, the message may appear as regular electronic communications or emails. The sender 20 may also send information to the receiver device 40 as to how the message has been divided and so how the message components may be recreated to form the original message. This scheme or information may be predetermined, sent with the electronic communications, sent as a separate communication or changed at intervals or for every message, sender or receiver.

This information may also be encrypted or otherwise used to restrict access to the original message even when all message components are visible or interceptable to third parties. The electronic communications used to send the message components may contain a portion of data used to allow the recipient to recreate the original message, for

example.

Figures 8-12 show examples of further embodiments and different possible email distribution systems and schemes.

Various other combinations of these may be used as well.

Figure 8 shows email messages sent through the distributed mail system using the methods described above.

-14 -Multiple transmitting email servers send each separate message component, which is received by a single email communication server or receiving server and passed on to the recipient.

Figure 9 shows email messages containing each message component sent through multiple email servers, which each act as both the receiving and transmitting servers.

Figure 10 shows an alternative embodiment where a portion of the message components are sent by the communication servers (acting as both transmitting and receiving servers) directly to the recipient and a portion and sent via one or more separate receiving servers.

Figure 11 shows a plurality of transmitting servers and a plurality of receiving servers handling the message components separately.

Figure 12 shows a single transmitting server passing on each message component (as separate email messages) to multiple receiving servers.

As will be appreciated by the skilled person, details of the above embodiment may be varied without departing from the scope of the present invention, as defined by the appended claims.

For example, the message may be formatted or unformatted or may contain attachments that are also divided into message components or attachment components.

Electronic communication includes many types including but not limited to email, SMS, instant messaging, text, image, video and audio based communication media. Furthermore, electronic communication or mail servers are those devices that either send or receiver (or both) those electronic communications.

Many combinations, modifications, or alterations to the features of the above embodiments will be readily apparent -15 -to the skilled person and are intended to form part of the invention. Any of the features described specifically relating to one embodiment or example may be used in any other embodiment by making the appropriate changes.

S

Claims

-16 -CLAIMS: 1. A method of sending electronic communications comprising the steps of: dividing a message into a plurality of message components; sending each of the plurality of message components as a plurality of electronic communication messages for delivery to a recipient for recombination to form the message.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending step further comprises sending each electronic communication message in the plurality of mail messages to a separate communication delivery server.
3, The method of claim 2, wherein the communication delivery server is a simple mail transfer protocol, SMTP, server.
4. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the sending step further comprises delivering each of the plurality of electronic communication messages to a separate communication receiving server.
5. The method according to any previous claim further comprising extracting the message components from the electronic communication messages and combining the message components to form the message.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the recipient extracts and combines the message components to form the message.

-17 -
7. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the dividing step further comprises: generating parity data for groups of two or more of the plurality of message components such that any one or more of the plurality of message components may be recreated from the remaining message components and the parity data, wherein the parity data are sent as one or more further electronic mail messages for delivery to the recipient.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the dividing step further comprises: dividing the message components into further message components; and generating further parity data for groups of two or more of the further message components such that any one or more of the further message components may be recreated from the remaining further message components and the further parity data.
9. A method of receiving an electronic message comprising the steps of: receiving a plurality of electronic communication messages each comprising one of a plurality of message components; and combining the plurality of message components to form a message.
10. The method of claim 9 further comprising the steps of receiving parity data generated from groups of two or more of the plurality of message components; and generating any missing message components from the received parity data and message components to form the message.

-18 -
11. The method of claim 9, wherein the message components are recreatable using associated parity data generated from the message components, and further wherein each message component and parity data is sub-divided into related message subsets, the related message subsets being recreatable from associated further parity data generated from the related message subsets, wherein the message subsets and further parity data are received as separate electronic communication messages, the method further comprising the steps of: a) receiving some of the message subsets and further parity data; b) recreating any missing message subsets by executing a parity function across unrelated further message subsets and further parity data; c) combining related message subsets and any recreated related message subsets to form one or more combined message components; d) combining the combined components and recreated components to form the message.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the steps of: bl) recreating any missing further parity data by executing a parity function across unrelated message subsets, wherein the unrelated messages subsets are either received message subsets or recreated message subsets; and/or b2) recreating any missing message subsets by executing a parity function across related message subsets and the recreated further parity data.

-19 -
13. A method of transmitting electronic communications comprising the steps of: dividing a message into a plurality of message components; S sending each of the plurality of message components as an electronic communication message to a separate communication sending server; receiving the plurality of electronic mail messages at an electronic communication receiving server; and combining the plurality of message components to form the message.
14. The method of claim 13 the sending step further comprises sending each electronic communication message in the plurality of mail messages to a separate communication delivery server.
IS. A system for transmitting electronic communications comprising: a sender arranged to divide a message into a plurality of message components and send each of the plurality of message components as an electronic communication message; a plurality of electronic communication receiving servers arranged to receive each of the electronic communication messages; and a receiver arranged to receive the plurality of electronic mail and combine the plurality of message components to form the message.
16. A method as described herein with reference to any accompanying figure.

-20 -
17. A computer program comprising program instructions that, when executed on a computer cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 14 or 16.
18. A computer-readable medium carrying a computer program according to claim 17,
19. A computer or mobile device programmed to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 14 or 16.