JPH0614052A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the reliability by providing a delivery means used to suppress quantity of electronic mails to callers stored in a history storage means to the system when an electronic mail is sent or relayed so as to prevent the system from being overloaded. CONSTITUTION:The electronic mail generated or sent at a mail transmission means 5 by the user is received by a delivery means 9 and checks the delivery destination and gives it to a mail reception means when the mail is addressed to itself and retrieves a history storage means 10 when the mail destination is other destination. When the transmission quantity within past prescribed time is a prescribed quantity or below through the retrieval, the means 9 allows a communication means 7 to transfer the electronic mail and after the transfer is successful, the mail is stored in the means 10. When the means 7 fails in the transfer or the transmission quantity exceeds a prescribed quantity, the electronic mail is stored in a mail storage means 8 and the mail is extracted from the means 8 after the prescribed time and it is repeated the transmission is successful. Thus, excess processing load of the system is prevented and the efficiency and the reliability are improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system for receiving and sending electronic mail, for example, between a plurality of computers via a communication line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a delivery mechanism of this kind of electronic mail system, for example, "UNIX MAGAZINE" is used.
(November, 1989) "(Ascii Corporation) [SE
NDMAIL Freedom (1) "on page 32 UNIX operating system (UN
IX has a delivery mechanism of an electronic mail system that operates under the registered trademark of AT & T Corporation.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an electronic mail system having the electronic mail delivery mechanism. In FIG.
Reference numeral 101 is an electronic mail system, 102 is a user interface unit, 103 is a communication unit, and 104 is a delivery management unit. In the user interface unit 102, 1
Reference numeral 05 is a mail transmitting means for inputting and transmitting an electronic mail by the operator, 106 is a mail receiving means for receiving the electronic mail and displaying the electronic mail to the operator. In the communication unit 103, 107 is a communication line. In the delivery management unit 104, 108 is a mail storage unit for temporarily storing the E-mail, and 109 is a communication unit that transfers the E-mail with another computer, and 109 cooperates with the user interface unit and the communication unit. Is a delivery means for delivering electronic mail and temporarily storing the electronic mail by the mail storage means.

The flow of transmission processing in the electronic mail system will be described with reference to FIG. The operator creates and sends an electronic mail by the mail sending means 5 (step S1 in FIG. 6), and then the delivery means 9 checks the delivery address of the electronic mail (step S2). To the mail receiving means 6 (step S
3) If it is addressed to another computer, the electronic mail is passed to the communication means 7 so as to be transferred to an appropriate computer, and the communication means 7 transfers the received electronic mail (step S4). At this time, if the communication means 7 fails in the transfer (step S
5) The delivery means 9 temporarily stores the electronic mail in the mail storage means 8 (step S6), and after a while, extracts the electronic mail from the mail storage means 8 (step S7), and again The transfer is repeated using the communication means 7 until it succeeds.

Next, the flow of electronic mail relay delivery processing received from another computer will be described with reference to FIG. When the delivery means 9 receives the electronic mail from the mail sending computer via the communication means 7 (step P1 in FIG. 7), it checks the delivery address of the received electronic mail (step P2) and uses the relay computer. If it is addressed to the operator, the electronic mail is delivered to the mail receiving means 6 (step P
3) On the other hand, if it is destined to the destination computer, the e-mail is transferred to the communication means 7 so as to be transferred to the destination computer, and the communication means 7 relays and transfers the received e-mail (step P4). At this time, if the communication means 7 fails in the transfer (step P5), the delivery means 9 temporarily stores the electronic mail in the mail storage means 8 (step P6), and after a while, the mail storage means. The e-mail is taken out from step 8 (step P7), and the transfer is repeated using the communication means 7 again until it succeeds.

In both the e-mail sending process and the e-mail relay delivery process, when the delivery means 9 has an error in the received e-mail address or when the e-mail transfer by the communication means fails for a certain number of times. , Generate and send an error mail indicating that the electronic mail cannot be delivered to the sender of the electronic mail.

[0007]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above,
In the delivery mechanism of the conventional electronic mail system, when an operator creates / transmits an electronic mail or receives an electronic mail from another computer, the electronic mail is immediately subjected to a series of processes in the delivery management unit and the communication unit. . Further, even when an electronic mail received from another computer has an error in the delivery destination or the electronic mail cannot be delivered due to a system malfunction, the error mail transmission process for the electronic mail sender is immediately executed.

Here, for example, when an operator continuously sends a large number of e-mails or e-mails with an enormous amount of texts for a certain period of time, the computer that sends or relays those e-mails has a very high processing load. Get higher Especially when there is an error in the delivery destination of these e-mails, the same number of error mails as the sent e-mails will be returned to the operator. The computer relay-transferring to the returning computer relay-transfers the number of electronic mails twice as many as the number of electronic mails sent by the operator, and the load increases remarkably, and the processing of the entire electronic mail system is performed. There is a problem that the efficiency is affected and the use of the e-mail system by other operators is impaired.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems. For example, the delivery means in the delivery management unit of an electronic mail system can be used for a unit of time suitable for each operator who sends an electronic mail. By providing a means to suppress the number of emails to be sent or relayed or the amount of body text when it exceeds the preset usage range, and to reduce the number of error emails sent back to the same user when sending error emails, The aim is to have a robust email system that provides a reliable service.

[0010]

An electronic mail system according to the invention of claim 1 is, for example, when a sender sends an electronic mail by a user interface section or when relaying from a computer to a computer through a communication section. The delivery management unit is equipped with delivery means for suppressing the amount of electronic mail to the sender held in the history storage means, and has the following elements. (A) a user interface section for sending and receiving electronic mail, (b) a communication section for transferring electronic mail through a communication line, (c) a delivery management section having the following elements between the user interface section and the communication section, (C1) history storage means for holding communication history of electronic mail, (c2)
(C3) a mail storage means for storing an electronic mail, (c3) searching the communication history held by the history storage means, and storing the electronic mail in the mail storage means based on a predetermined condition, thereby enabling the communication unit to operate. A delivery method that limits the amount of email that passes through.

In the electronic mail system according to the second aspect of the present invention, for example, when an error mail for an electronic mail received from another computer is created / transmitted to the sender of the electronic mail, it is held in the history storage means. By searching the error mail creation history of the sender and collectively sending one or more error mails addressed to the sender into a single electronic mail, the number of error mails sent to the sender is suppressed. The delivery management unit is provided with delivery means, and has the following elements. (A) a user interface section for sending and receiving electronic mail, (b) a communication section for transferring electronic mail through a communication line, (c) a delivery management section having the following elements between the user interface section and the communication section, (C1) history storage means for holding the operation history of the delivery management unit, (c2)
(C3) A delivery means for searching the operation history held by the history storage means and collectively sending the emails of the same destination stored in the mail storage means.

[0012]

In the electronic mail system according to the invention of claim 1, when the electronic mail is inputted / transmitted from the user interface section, or when the electronic mail received from the first computer is relay-delivered to the second computer, it is delivered. The means retrieves the email communication history relating to the operator held in the history storage means, and immediately transmits through the communication means when the predetermined condition is satisfied, and when the condition is not satisfied, the electronic mail communication history is transmitted. It is possible to prevent an overload state by storing the mail in the mail storage means and then, after a while, delivering the mail via the communication means so as to satisfy the predetermined amount of the mail.

Further, in the electronic mail system according to the invention of claim 2, when the delivery means receives and delivers the electronic mail from the computer through the communication unit, the electronic mail is temporarily stored in the mail storage means, and thereafter the history is stored. The number of electronic mails can be reduced because the operation history stored in the means can be searched and the electronic mails of the same destination stored in the mail storage means can be collectively transmitted.

[0014]

EXAMPLES Example 1. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic mail system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1
In the figure, 1 is an electronic mail system, 2 is a user interface section for sending and receiving electronic mail, 3 is a communication section, and 4 is a delivery management section located between the user interface section and the communication section. The user interface section 2 is provided with a mail sending means for inputting and sending an electronic mail by an operator, and a mail receiving means for receiving the electronic mail and displaying the electronic mail to the operator. Reference numeral 7 is a communication means for transferring an electronic mail in the communication section 3 through a communication line. In the delivery management unit 4, 8 is a mail storage unit for temporarily storing an E-mail, 9 is a delivery unit that cooperates with a user interface unit and a communication unit, and delivers an E-mail, 10 is a delivery unit 9, and a mail transmission unit 5 This is a history storage means for storing an electronic mail transmission history when the electronic mail input and sent from is sent using the communication means 7.

Next, the flow of transmission processing in the first embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. The operator creates and sends an electronic mail by the mail sending means 5, and delivers it to the delivery means 9 (step L1 in FIG. 2). The delivery means 9 checks the delivery address of the electronic mail (step L2), the operator himself passes the electronic mail to the mail receiving means 6 (step L3), and the other computer sends the electronic mail to another computer. As the transfer processing to the destination, first, the history accumulation means 10 retrieves the electronic mail transmission history of the operator (step L4), and the total number of electronic mails or the total amount of the electronic mails transmitted within a predetermined time in the past is a predetermined transmission amount limit. If it does not exceed (step L5), the delivery means 9 delivers the electronic mail to the communication means 7, and the communication means 7 transfers the received electronic mail to another computer (step L6). If delivery is successful (step L
7) The sender's address of the operator, the transmission time, and the amount of the electronic mail text are stored in the history storage means 10 as the electronic mail transmission history (step L8). When the communication means 7 fails to transfer the e-mail, or when the total number of e-mails sent in the past fixed time or the total amount of text exceeds the predetermined transmission amount limit, The delivery means 9 temporarily stores the e-mail in the mail accumulating means 8 (step L9), and after a specific time has elapsed (step L10), takes out the e-mail from the mail accumulating means 8 (step L1
1), the transfer process to another computer is repeated until the transmission of the e-mail is successful.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when a specific operator continuously sends a large amount of e-mail, the sending amount can be limited, so that the processing load of the computer becomes excessive. It is possible to obtain an efficient system that prevents the other users from using the electronic mail.

Example 2. In the step L5 in FIG. 2 of the first embodiment, if the number of e-mails sent by the operator in the past fixed time, or the total sum of the texts exceeds the predetermined transmission amount limit, the communication means By sending an e-mail of a warning to the operator to the mail receiving means 6, the operator 7 can give an alarm to the operator and urge him to stop the creation and transmission of future e-mails for a while.

Example 3. A relay delivery process according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 1 and the flowchart of FIG. In addition, in this embodiment, in FIG.
In the history storage means 10, the delivery means 9 operating on the mail relay computer is changed from the mail transmission computer to the communication means 7.
The electronic mail relay history is stored when the electronic mail received via the mail is relay-delivered to the mail destination computer using the communication means 7 again.

When the delivery means 9 operating on the mail relay computer receives the electronic mail from the mail sending computer via the communication means 7, the electronic mail is received (step M1 in FIG. 3). The delivery means 9 checks the delivery address of the e-mail (step M2),
If it is addressed to the operator who uses the mail relay computer, the electronic mail is passed to the mail receiving means 6 (step M
3) If it is for the mail destination computer, as a transfer process for another computer, the history storage means 10 first searches the email relay history of the sender of the email (step M4), and within the past certain time, When the total number of emails or the amount of body text relayed with respect to the sender does not exceed the predetermined relay volume limit (step M5), the delivery means 9 passes the emails to the communication means 7, and the communication is performed. The means 7 transfers the received electronic mail to the mail transmission destination computer (step M6). If the delivery is successful (step M7), the sender address, the transmission time, and the body amount of the email are stored in the history storage means 10 as the email relay history (step M8). When the communication means 7 fails to transfer the e-mail, or when the total number of e-mails relayed in the past fixed time or the total amount of text exceeds a predetermined relay amount limit, The delivery means 9 temporarily stores the electronic mail in the mail storage means 8 (step M9), and after a specific time has passed (step M10), takes out the electronic mail from the mail storage means 8 (step M11), and so on. The transfer process to the computer is repeated until the e-mail relay delivery is successful.

According to this embodiment, the amount of relay by a specific caller can be limited, so that the use of a computer by the specific caller is not impaired.

Example 4. In the first or third embodiment, the sum of the number of emails and the amount of text sent within the past fixed time was used to limit the amount of transmission or the amount of relay, but this is the number of emails or text. The same effect can be obtained by using either one of the sums of the amounts or another standard.

Embodiment 5. Further, in the first or third embodiment described above, a predetermined amount is used uniformly for any sender of e-mail as the limit of the transmission amount or the relay amount. It is possible to set the priority of use of the e-mail system for each user and enable the system administrator's e-mail to be delivered with privilege by enabling it to be set to It is possible.

For example, for user A, the transmission amount is 50
Assuming that 100 is set for B, if both users A and B send 70,
When the number exceeds 50, the electronic mail of the user A is stored in the mail storage means, but the transmission of B continuously transmitted by B is prioritized.

Example 6. In addition, the transmission amount or relay amount limit is loosely set according to the operating status of the email system when the load is low, and dynamically set so that the limit is tightened when the load is high. It is possible to improve the operating rate.

Example 7. The error mail transmission processing according to the seventh embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of. In the present embodiment, the history storage means 10 in FIG. 1 is an error mail to the sender of the electronic mail received from another computer by the delivery means 9 operating on the mail relay computer via the communication means 7. The error mail generation history is saved when is generated.

When the delivery means 9 generates an error mail to the sender of the electronic mail received from another computer via the communication means 7 (step N1 in FIG. 4), the delivery means 9
First, as an error mail generation history for the sender,
The destination address, the generation time, and the mail identifier designating the error mail stored in the mail storage means are stored in the history storage means 10 (step N2), and the error mail is stored in the mail storage means 8 (step N3). ) Next, as error mail transfer processing, the history storage means 10 is searched for an error mail generation history for the sender (step N4). If no error mail has been generated within a certain past time (step N5), After taking out all error mails for the sender from the mail storage means 8 (step N6), collecting them into one electronic mail,
It is transferred to another computer using the communication means 7 in the same manner as an ordinary electronic mail (step N7). On the other hand, if an error mail has been generated within a certain time in the past, after a specific time has passed (step N8), the error mail transfer process is repeated again.

According to this embodiment, the electronic mail cannot be transferred due to a delivery destination error or a system malfunction, and when an error mail is created and sent to the sender of the electronic mail,
Since error mails sent to the same sender can be sent together as one, the load on the computer can be reduced,
It is possible to obtain an e-mail system in which the careless operator does not impair the efficiency of the entire system by sending a large number or a large amount of e-mails.

Example 8. In the seventh embodiment, the delivery unit 9 generates an error mail, stores the error mail generation history in the history storage unit 10, first stores the error mail in the mail storage unit 8, and then stores an error regarding the sender. I am searching the mail generation history, but before storing the error mail in the mail storage means, search the error mail generation history first, and other error mails other than the error mail are generated within the past certain time. If so, the error mail is stored in the mail storage means 8, and if not, the error mail is immediately transferred to another computer using the communication means 7 without being stored in the mail storage means 8, thereby transmitting the message. It is also possible to construct a system for promptly notifying the sender of an error while reducing the number of error mails addressed to the sender.

Example 9. In the seventh embodiment, when error mails addressed to the same sender are generated one after another within a certain time, the error mails are not transmitted and are stored in the mail storage means until the generation interval exceeds the certain time. If the number of error mails addressed to the sender stored in the storage means exceeds a certain number, or if the oldest error mail exceeds a certain time, the error mail generation interval should not exceed a certain time. By sending a single electronic mail to the sender without waiting, the number of error mails addressed to the sender can be reduced, and the sender can be notified of the error more quickly. .

Example 10. In the above-mentioned seventh embodiment, it is judged whether or not the error mail is generated within the fixed fixed time. However, according to the operating status of the electronic mail system, when the load is low, the time which is the judgment criterion is more Shorten or stop combining error mails into one e-mail and send it immediately. When the load is high, this judgment criterion is made longer and as many error mails as possible are combined into one e-mail. By doing so, it is possible to realize a quick error notification when the load of the electronic mail system is low, and to control the load when the load is high.

Example 11. In the above-mentioned Embodiments 7 to 10, the example in which the error mails to be sent to the sender are put together is shown. However, it is not limited to the error mails. The efficiency can be improved by grouping the same type of e-mails based on a condition that is arbitrarily set, such as collectively sending these e-mails.

Example 12 In the above-mentioned Embodiments 7 to 11, the example in which the electronic mails to be sent to the sender are put together is illustrated, but in the transfer of the electronic mails sent to the destination specified by the normal sender without any error, a plurality of electronic mails are transmitted. Can be combined into a single email. For example, if e-mail addressed to a particular recipient is received from multiple senders in succession, summary information (sender name, sender name,
It is also possible to send only the number of pages and a summary indicating the contents to the recipient once, and send the undelivered e-mail to the recipient when the system load decreases.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, the delivery means in the delivery management section of the electronic mail system is provided with means for suppressing the amount of emails to be transmitted or relayed, and the emails sent to the same destination are Since the means for reducing the number is provided, it is possible to prevent the electronic mail system from being overloaded and improve the reliability of the electronic mail system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electronic mail system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an electronic mail transmission process according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an electronic mail relay delivery process according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of error mail transmission processing according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional electronic mail system.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a conventional electronic mail transmission process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a conventional electronic mail relay delivery process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 E-mail system 2 User interface part 3 Communication part 4 Delivery management part 5 Mail sending means 6 Mail receiving means 7 Communication means 8 Mail storage means 9 Delivery means 10 History storage means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic mail system having the following elements: (a) a user interface unit for sending and receiving electronic mail; (b) a communication unit for transferring electronic mail through a communication line; (c) a user interface unit and a communication unit. Between
A delivery management unit having the following elements, (c1) history storage means for holding communication history of electronic mail, (c2) mail storage means for storing electronic mail, (c3) communication history held by the history storage means Delivery means for searching and storing the electronic mail in the mail storage means based on a predetermined condition to limit the amount of the electronic mail passing through the communication unit. 2. An electronic mail system having the following elements: (a) a user interface section for sending and receiving electronic mail; (b) a communication section for transferring electronic mail through a communication line; (c) a user interface section and a communication section. Between
A delivery management unit having the following elements: (c1) history storage means for holding the operation history of the delivery management unit; (c2) mail storage means for storing e-mail; (c3) operation history held by the history storage means. And a delivery means for collectively sending electronic mails of the same destination stored in the mail storage means.