Apparatus and method for providing electronic mail relay translation services

An apparatus and a method for providing translation services to telecommunications processes for mapping from a unique identifier for an object, such as a telephone number, to an electronic address for the object, such as an electronic mail address. The apparatus and method permit telecommunication application processes to send multimedia messages created in one delivery method over the Internet in another delivery method without supporting directory standards. The advantage is the ability to develop less complicated application processes in less time and therefore get more quickly to market.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
The present invention relates to services for delivering multi-media 
messages over a data network such as the Internet and, in particular, to 
translation services for finding an electronic address for a preferred 
delivery method for an electronic message to an addressee given some 
unique identifier for the addressee and forwarding the electronic message 
using the electronic address for the delivery method. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The pervasive use of multi-media messaging applications and transport 
services such as the Internet has given rise to a need for translating a 
message created in one delivery method to a recipient's preferred delivery 
method and to delivering the message in the preferred delivery method. In 
particular, there has been interest expressed in sending voice messages 
over the Internet in electronic mail format. The Voice Profile for 
Internet Mail (VPIM) is an Internet standard created for that purpose. 
VPIM defines a protocol profile of an extension to Internet electronic 
mail. Voice messaging systems (VMSs) that support VPIM are capable of 
exchanging voice messages over the Internet using Internet electronic 
mail. 
VPIM has industry acceptance and is being implemented by major voice 
messaging vendors. it is assumed that regular telephones will be used for 
some time yet as an interface for sending voice messages. Consequently, 
there is a requirement for a mechanism to permit a VMS to convert a 
telephone number of a voice message recipient into an Internet electronic 
mail address. 
The voice messaging industry is investigating the use of Internet 
Light-Weight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) for mapping from a telephone 
number to an Internet electronic mail address. However, first generation 
VPIM compliant VMSs may not support directory protocols required for such 
mapping. Those VMSs will use either manually updated tables, sendmail 
configuration files, or Domain Name Service (DNS) to map from telephone 
numbers to e-mail addresses. However, those options may not scale well and 
may not permit them to take advantage of a global voice messaging 
directory. Other telecommunications-related services could also profit 
from an ability to access data stored in the global voice messaqing 
directory which would enable an application process to convert an object's 
telephone number to an electronic mail address to permit messages and/or 
information to be sent to that electronic mail address. 
A voice mail communication system which is enabled to convert a telephone 
number to an electronic mail address using a directory connected to a 
local area network (LAN) is known and taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,675 
which issued on Apr. 29, 1997 to Katsumaru et al. This patent teaches a 
voice mail system which includes a voice mail exchanger and a mail server 
connected to the LAN. Voice mail communication between a telephone and a 
terminal device, such as a client computer, is registered in the LAN-based 
multi-media mailbox. A PBX-based voice mail apparatus and the LAN-based 
multi-media mail system are integrated so that voice information can be 
commonly used and re-used. The system is enabled to support LAN directory 
protocols. This system does not provide an addressing solution for VPIM 
compliant VMSs or telecommunications applications which do not support 
directory protocols. 
There therefore exists a need for a method and apparatus for providing 
translation services to VPIM compliant VMSs and other telecommunications 
application processes which could benefit from a service for translating 
telephone numbers to the address of other multi-media delivery methods. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus for providing 
translation services to permit a telecommunications application process to 
dispatch a message to a recipient using a preferred delivery method when a 
unique identifier for the recipient is known but the address of the 
preferred delivery method is unknown. 
It is a further object of the invention to provide an apparatus for 
providing translation services to permit a voice message to be sent over 
the Internet when at least one unique identifier for the recipient is 
known but the electronic mail address of the recipient is unknown. 
It is a further object of the invention to permit a user of a VMS which 
does not support directory services to transparently dispatch a voice 
message to a recipient via electronic mail over the Internet. 
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a method of 
providing translation services to permit a telecommunications application 
process to send an information message over the Internet to an unknown 
address of a recipient of the information message when a unique identifier 
for the recipient is known. 
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of providing 
translation services to permit a VMS which does not support directory 
services to send a voice message over the Internet to an unknown 
electronic mail address of a recipient when a telephone number of the 
recipient is known. 
In a first aspect of the invention there is provided apparatus for 
providing translation services to permit a telecommunications application 
process to send an information message over a data transmission facility 
when an electronic mail address of an addressee of the message is unknown, 
but at least one unique identifier for the addressee is known, comprising: 
a host connected to the data transmission facility for receiving a data 
message from the telecommunications application process which is connected 
to the data transmission facility, the data message including the 
information message and the at least one unique identifier for the 
addressee of the information message, the host having means for deriving 
an electronic mail address for the addressee of the information message 
given the at least one unique identifier for the addressee, means for 
re-addressing the information message with the electronic mail address of 
the addressee, and means for forwarding the information message to the 
addressee by electronic mail. 
In a second aspect of the invention there is provided a method of providing 
translation services to permit a telecommunications application process to 
send an information message over the Internet to an unknown address of a 
recipient of the information message when a unique identifier for the 
recipient is known, comprising the steps of: 
(a) receiving from the telecommunications application process an electronic 
mail message which includes the information message and the unique 
identifier for the recipient; 
(b) extracting the unique identifier from the electronic mail message and 
dispatching a query to a directory server to obtain the unknown address of 
the recipient from the directory server; 
(c) receiving a response to the query sent to the directory server; 
(d) extracting the unknown address from the response if the response 
returned an address; 
(e) inserting the address in the information message if the response 
returned an address; and 
(f) forwarding the information message over the Internet using the address 
if the response returned an address. 
The invention therefore provides an apparatus and a method for enabling a 
telecommunications process such as a VMS to send information messages over 
the Internet to a recipient when the electronic mail address of the 
recipient is unknown but a unique identifier for the recipient, such as 
the recipient's telephone number is known. In accordance with the 
invention, a service provider which provides translation services to a 
plurality of telecommunications application processes receives electronic 
mail messages over the Internet in a protocol such as Simple Mail 
Transport Protocol (SMTP). The electronic mail messages contain the 
information message to be sent to a recipient as well as the unique 
identifier for the recipient. The service provider extracts the unique 
identifier from the electronic mail message and passes it to a directory 
query application such as a Light-Weight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) 
which uses the unique identifier for the recipient to query a directory 
service in order to obtain the unknown address of the recipient. The 
directory service may be, for example, a global voice messaging directory. 
The invention therefore enables telecommunications application processes 
such as VPIM compliant VMSs to dispatch voice mail messages to any 
recipient included in the global directory without the necessity of 
providing the VMS with directory query capabilities, thereby decreasing 
time to market for VPIM compliant VMSs, and other telecommunications 
application processes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing electronic 
mail relay translation services required by telecommunications application 
processes which do not support directory query capability. In accordance 
with the invention, directory query standards are supported by a 
translation service provider which serves a plurality of clients to map 
from a known unique identifier for the recipient of an information message 
to an address of a preferred delivery method for the message. 
FIG. 1 shows a simplified schematic diagram of a network which includes 
apparatus in accordance with the invention. For the sake of simplicity, 
only relevant network nodes are shown in FIG. 1. The apparatus in 
accordance with the invention is a translation service provider 10 which 
is connected to a data network 12, such as the Internet. The service 
provider 10 includes an electronic mail component such as SMTP host 14 and 
a directory query component such as a LDAP application process 16. The 
translation service provider 10 provides translation services to a 
plurality of clients connected to the data network 12 such as a VPIM 
compliant VMS 18 which includes a voice message system 20 and an 
electronic mail host 22. Another client is, for example, a telemarketing 
call centre 24 which includes a telemarketing service component 26 and an 
electronic mail host 28. Both clients 18 and 24 are connected to the 
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 30 as are a plurality of 
telephone users represented by the telephone 32. As will be explained 
below in more detail, the translation service provider 10 obtains address 
translation data from directory servers 34 which are, for example, LDAP 
compliant directory servers. The use of such servers is well known in the 
art. 
FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing the sequence of events which typically 
occur when an apparatus in accordance with the invention provides 
translation services to a client such as a VPIM compliant VMS which does 
not itself support directory standards. As described above, the VMS 18 
includes a voice message system component 20 and an electronic mail host 
22, preferably a SMTP host which is connected to the Internet. A telephone 
subscriber 32 uses the VMS 18 to create a voice message in a step 40 by 
way of a direct connection to a PBX (not shown) or dial-up connection 
through the PSTN 30 (see FIG. 1). The recipient of the voice message 
created in step 40 is typically identified to the VMS 18 using a telephone 
number. The telephone number may be the number of any recipient which can 
be direct-dialled provided that the recipient subscribes to facilities 
that support the delivery method. After the voice mail message is created 
in step 40, VMS 18 converts the message to an electronic mail format such 
as a SMTP format, addresses the message and passes it to the SMTP host 22 
which in step 42, forwards the message over the Internet in step 44 to the 
SMTP host 14 of the translation service provider. 
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the electronic 
mail message passed from SMTP host 22 to SMTP host 14 is addressed in a 
format following the accepted standard of "local-part@domain-part" in 
which the "local-part" contains the unique identifier for the intended 
recipient and the domain-part identifies the SMTP host 14. When the SMTP 
host 14 receives the electronic mail message dispatched in step 44, it 
passes the message to an application process which stores the message in a 
memory and extracts the local-part of the address. The local-part of the 
address is passed to an LDAP process which formulates a query that is 
dispatched over the Internet in step 48 to a directory server 34, which 
supports a directory such as a global voice messaging directory. The 
directory server 34 uses the unique identifier for the recipient to 
retrieve desired information about the recipient, such as their electronic 
mail address, for example. In step 50 the directory server 34 returns an 
LDAP response to the LDAP component of the translation service provider 
10. The LDAP component extracts the required address from the LDAP 
response, if the response returns the desired information and passes the 
address in step 52 back to the application process which replaces the 
electronic mail address of the message received at the SMTP host 14 in 
step 44 with the address received in step 52. In step 54, the SMTP host 
dispatches the re-addressed voice message to an electronic mailbox which 
typically resides on a mail server 36 of an Internet service provider, or 
the like. The recipient of the voice mail message then retrieves the 
message from the mail server 36 in a manner well known in the art. 
Optionally, if requested by the originator the translation service 
provider 10 may return a confirmation message in step 56 to the SMTP host 
22 of the VMS 18 to inform the VMS 18 that the translation service was 
successful and the voice message was forwarded to the recipient. 
FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram showing a typical sequence of events which 
occurs when the apparatus in accordance with the invention is unable to 
retrieve an address requested of the translation service provider 10. As 
described above, the telephone subscriber 32 creates a voice mail message 
by dialling into the voice mail system 20 in step 40. The VMS 18 responds 
by converting the voice message into an electronic mail format and 
addressing the message to the SMTP host 14 of the translation service 
provider 10. The message is then passed to the SMTP host component 22 of 
the VMS 18 in step 42. The SMTP host 22 dispatches the electronic message 
over the Internet in step 44 and it is received by the SMTP host 14. An 
application process running at the translation service provider 10 accepts 
the electronic mail message from the SMTP host 14 and stores it in memory. 
The application process extracts the unique identifier for the recipient 
of the voice message and passes the identifier in step 46 to the LDAP 
directory process 16 which formulates an LDAP query using the unique 
identifier and dispatches it over the Internet in step 48 to a directory 
server 34. If the directory server 34 cannot locate the recipient using 
the unique identifier, for example, if the recipient is not in the 
directory and no knowledge reference points to another directory which may 
contain the required information, the directory server 34 returns an LDAP 
response in step 50 to the LDAP process 16 of the translation service 
provider 10. The LDAP response indicates that the desired information 
could not be located. On receipt of a failure message from the LDAP 
process in step 58, the application process running on the translation 
service provider 10 re-addresses the electronic mail message and returns 
it to the SMTP host 22. A notification is then returned via the Internet 
in step 60 to the SMTP host 22. The notification may include the original 
voice message. On receipt of the notification, the SMTP host 22 passes the 
notification to the VMS 18 which preferably then alerts the subscriber 32 
of the failure by posting the notification in the voice mailbox of the 
subscriber 32. 
The translation service provider may likewise provide translation services 
to other telecommunications application processes such as a telemarketing 
service provider 24 (see FIG. 1). FIG. 4 shows a sequence diagram of a 
typical sequence of events in which the translation service provider 10 
provides translation services to a telemarketing service 24. 
A telephone subscriber 32 connected to the PSTN 30 (see FIG. 1) is called 
by a telemarketing service 24 which initiates a dial-up connection in step 
62. Conversation ensues with a telemarketing agent in step 64. As a result 
of the conversation, the telephone subscriber 32 requests that information 
respecting a product or service offered by the telemarketing service be 
dispatched to the subscriber 32 over the Internet by electronic mail in 
step 66. Rather than occupy the time of the telemarketing agent 26 and the 
telephone subscriber 32 in recording an electronic mail address, and risk 
the inaccuracies of transcription, the agent for the telemarketing service 
18 does not request the electronic mail address of the telephone 
subscriber 32. Rather, the agent 26 of the telemarketing service 24 
initiates an application process which formulates an electronic mail 
information message including the information requested by the telephone 
subscriber 32 and a unique identifier for the telephone subscriber 32, in 
this case the telephone number of the telephone subscriber 32. That 
electronic message is passed to the SMTP host 28 in step 68. The SMTP host 
28 dispatches the electronic mail message in step 70 over the Internet to 
the SMTP host 14 of the translation services provider 10. On receipt of 
the message dispatched in step 70, an application process operating on the 
apparatus in accordance with the invention stores the message in memory 
and extracts the telephone number of telephone subscriber 32 from the 
local-part of the electronic mail address, as described above. The 
telephone number of the telephone subscriber 32 is then passed to an LDAP 
application process 16 in step 72, which formulates an LDAP query 
including the telephone number of the telephone subscriber 32 and 
dispatches the query over the Internet to the directory server 34 in step 
74. The directory server 34 retrieves the requested electronic mail 
address from the appropriate directory entry and returns an LDAP response 
in step 76 which is passed to the application process that operates on the 
apparatus 10 in accordance with the invention. The application process is 
passed the address in step 78 and inserts the address into the information 
message received in step 70. The re-addressed information message is then 
passed to the SMTP host 14 which dispatches it over the Internet in step 
80 to a mail server 36, which is typically the mail server of an Internet 
service provider. The SMTP host 14 may then optionally, if requested by 
SMTP host 28, return a confirmation message to the SMTP host 28 in step 82 
to inform the telemarketing service 26 that the requested information was 
sent to the mailbox of the telephone subscriber 32. 
Although the apparatus 10 in accordance with the invention has been 
explained with reference to only two telecommunications applications, it 
will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the apparatus for 
providing translation services in accordance with the invention has many 
additional applications and enables application processes such as VPIM 
compliant VMSs to be brought to market more quickly because they need not 
support directory standards. 
Changes and modifications to the preferred embodiment described above may 
become apparent to those skilled in the art. The scope of the invention is 
therefore intended to be limited solely by the scope of the appended 
claims.