Patent ID: 7337234

Claim:
A system for managing communications between a sender and an intended recipient, the system comprising: a plurality of logical components coupled in a sequence to sequentially forward a sender communication from the sender to the intended recipient; a retry component, in the plurality of logical components, that is designated to retry sending the sender communication to the intended recipient if the sender communication fails to reach the intended recipient; wherein the retry component is the only component of the plurality of logical components that is designated to retry sending the sender communication to the intended recipient; and multiple components, in the plurality of logical components, that respond to the sender communication failing by: (a) constructing a message which indicates that the sender communication failed, and (b) sending the message to the retry component without themselves retrying to send the sender communication to die intended recipient; wherein at least one of the multiple components is configured to respond to the sender communication failing by sending the message directly to the retry component, wherein sending the message directly to the retry component comprises bypassing at least one other component of the multiple components; wherein at least one of the multiple components is a component that is not positioned within said sequence to receive communications directly from the retry component.