Method and apparatus for routing messagers in an electronic messaging system

A method for routing a message encoded in a signal received by an electronic messaging system, the electronic messaging system including a routing information database containing a plurality of routing path records keyed by user addresses, the message containing a user address having a plurality of address codes corresponding to different levels of specificity, the method comprising:

• (a) setting a search level indicator to a number of address codes in the user address of the message, the search level indicator corresponding to a current level of specificity;
• (b) formatting a search key using a set of address codes parsed from the user address and corresponding to the current level of specificity;
• (c) attempting to retrieve a routing path record associated with the search key;
• (d) decrementing the search level indicator if no routing path record is retrieved;
• and
• (e) repeating steps (b) through (d) until a routing path record is successfully retrieved or the search level indicator equals a predetermined base level.

A message transfer device for routing a message encoded in a signal received by an electronic messaging system including a memory and a routing information dataset stored therein, the routing information dataset associating communications paths with user addresses, the message including a user address comprising a plurality of address codes, the message transfer device comprising:

• (a) a search key generator adapted to format a search key comprising a set of address codes parsed from the user address of the message;
• (b) a database access module capable of retrieving routing information from the routing information dataset;
• and
• (c) a routing module coupled to the search key generator and the database access module, the routing module adapted to coordinate an iterative search of the routing information dataset using a search key comprising a progressively decreasing number of address codes.

A message transfer device for routing a message in an electronic messaging system including a memory, the message including a plurality of address codes, the message transfer device comprising:

• (a) a search key generator adapted to parse a subset of the plurality of address codes from the message and use the subset of the plurality of address codes to format a search key, the search key generator further adapted to reformat the search key by eliminating one of the subset of the plurality of address codes, wherein the search key generator maintains a search level indicator corresponding to a number of address codes in the search key;
• (b) a routing information dataset stored in the memory of the electronic messaging system, the routing information dataset containing a plurality of routing path records associating a communications path with user address information;
• (c) a data access module capable of retrieving a routing path record having user address information corresponding to the search key;
• and
• (d) a routing module coupled to the search key generator and the data access module, the routing module capable of transmitting a message along a communications path specified in a retrieved routing path record and adapted to coordinate an iterative operation comprising:
• (i) attempting to retrieve a routing path record corresponding to the search key using the data access module,
• (ii) indicating whether a routing path record was successfully retrieved by the data access module, and
• (iii) reformatting the search key using the search key generator if a routing path record was not successfully retrieved.

A message transfer device for routing a message in an electronic messaging system having a memory coupled thereto, the message including an externally meaningful address corresponding to an intended recipient, the message transfer device comprising:

• (a) an address translator adapted to convert an externally meaningful address to an internal address reflecting a configuration of the electronic messaging system;
• (b) a search key generator adapted to parse a set of address codes from the internal address and use the set of address codes to format an initial search key, the search key generator further adapted to reformat a search key by eliminating one of the set of address codes from the search key;
• (c) a routing information dataset stored in the memory coupled to the electronic messaging system, the routing information dataset containing a plurality of routing path records associating a communications path with user address information;
• (d) a data access module capable of retrieving a routing path record having user address information corresponding to the set of address codes in the search key;
• and
• (e) a routing module coupled to the search key generator and the data access module, the routing module capable of transmitting a message along a communications path specified in a retrieved routing path record and adapted to coordinate an iterative operation beginning with a search key formatted by the search key generator, the iterative operation comprising:
• (i) attempting to retrieve a routing path record corresponding to the search key using the data access module,
• (ii) indicating whether a routing path record was successfully retrieved by the data access module, and
• (iii) reformatting the search key using the search key generator if a routing path record was not successfully retrieved.

A method for routing a signal received by a switching device, the switching device including a memory associating routing information with user address information, the signal containing an encoded representation of a user address comprising a plurality of address codes, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) analyzing the received signal to identify the plurality of address codes encoded therein;
• (b) formatting a search key using the plurality of address codes;
• (c) setting a search level indicator according to the number of address codes in the search key;
• (d) attempting to retrieve routing information from the memory associated with the plurality of address codes in the search key;
• (e) eliminating one of the plurality of address codes from the search key if no routing information is successfully retrieved;
• (f) repeating steps (c) through (e) until routing information is successfully retrieved or the search level indicator equals a predetermined level;
• and
• (g) in the event routing information is successfully retrieved, routing the signal according to the retrieved routing information.