Patent ID: 8195755

Claim:
A method for delivering a plurality of messages from a plurality of service centers to a user device when the device becomes available to receive a message, the method comprising the steps, performed by each service center, of: receiving one or more messages for delivery to the user device while it the user device is not available to receive a message; receiving an alert from an alerting element indicating that the device has become available to receive a message, performing message delivery by: locally determining according to parameters a message delivery time T D for each message, and delivering each message at or near its determined delivery time T D , so that at least some of the messages are delivered from the plurality of service centers to the user device in a synchronized manner in terms of order of the service centers receiving the messages, wherein each service center determines the delivery time T D according to a linear time mapping algorithm, or a non-linear time mapping algorithm, and wherein the linear time mapping algorithm is: T D = T alert + ( T M - ( T alert - Δ ⁢ ⁢ T retention ) ) × Δ ⁢ ⁢ T delivery Δ ⁢ ⁢ T retention + Δ ⁢ ⁢ T delivery where: T alert is the arrival time of the alert at the service center, indicating the device becoming available, T M is the arrival time of a message at the service center, ΔT retention is the maximum time that a message is retained by any of the service centers, and ΔT delivery is the configured period in which all retained messages will be delivered; and wherein the non-linear time mapping algorithm is based on a continuous monotonic piece-wise linear function.