Method and apparatus for global routing of electronic messages

A method for routing a message encoded in a signal received by an electronic messaging system, comprising an originator address, a recipient address and a message text, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) maintaining an internal address identifying a routing path for a user of the electronic messaging system, the internal address comprising at least one internal address code;
• (b) maintaining an association between an internal address code and an external address code in a memory of the electronic messaging system;
• (c) locating a predetermined internal address code in the originator address of a message being routed;
• and
• (d) replacing the predetermined internal address code by an associated external address code prior to routing the message.

A method for routing a message received by an electronic messaging system, the message including a recipient address having a plurality of address codes and a message text, the method comprising:

• (a) generating a search key from the recipient address comprising a subset of the plurality of address codes corresponding to predetermined elements of the recipient address;
• (b) searching an inbound conversion table associating a set of internal address codes with a set of external address codes for a table entry including a set of external address codes corresponding to the search key;
• and
• (c) converting the recipient address to an internal address using the set of internal address codes from the inbound conversion table.

A message transfer device for routing a signal embodying a message in an electronic messaging system, the electronic messaging system including a memory and a routing information database stored therein that associates an internal address for each system user with a routing path, the message transfer device comprising:

• (a) a conversion table stored in the memory of the electronic messaging system, the conversion table including at least one entry associating an internal address code with an external address code, the internal address code comprising an element of an internal address and the external address code comprising an element of an external address, the external address identifying a user to other users;
• (b) a key generator capable of formatting a search key comprising a set of internal address codes parsed from predetermined positions of an originator address included in a message to be routed;
• (c) a table access module adapted to retrieve an entry from the conversion table having address codes equal to the search key;
• and
• (d) a router module adapted to convert the address included in the message to be routed by replacing one of the set of address codes by an associated address code from a retrieved conversion table entry prior to routing the message.

A message transfer device for routing a signal embodying a message in an electronic messaging system, the electronic messaging system including a memory and a routing information database stored therein that associates an internal address for each system user with a routing path, the message transfer device comprising:

• (a) a conversion table stored in the memory of the electronic messaging system, the conversion table including at least one entry associating an internal address code with an external address code, the internal address code comprising an element of an internal address and the external address code comprising an element of an external address, the external address identifying a user to other users;
• (b) a key generator capable of formatting a search key using external address codes parsed from a recipient address specified in the message to be routed;
• (c) a table access module adapted to retrieve an entry from the conversion table having address codes equal to the search key;
• and
• (d) a router module adapted to convert the address included in the message to be routed by replacing one of the set of address codes by an associated address code from a retrieved conversion table entry prior to routing the message.

A message transfer device for routing a signal embodying a message in an electronic messaging system, the electronic messaging system including a memory and a routing information database stored therein that associates an internal address for each user with a routing path, the message comprising an originator address, a recipient address and a message text, the message transfer device comprising:

• (a) a conversion table stored in the memory of the electronic messaging system, the conversion table including at least one table entry associating an internal address code with an external address code, the internal address code comprising an element of an internal address and the external address code comprising an element of an external address, the external address identifying a user to other users;
• (b) a key generator capable of formatting a first search key comprising a set of address codes parsed from predetermined positions of the originator address and a second search key comprising a set of address codes parsed from predetermined positions of the recipient address;
• (c) a conversion table access module adapted to retrieve a first table entry corresponding to the first search key and a second table entry corresponding to the second search key;
• and
• (d) a control module adapted to convert the originator address to an external address and the recipient address to an internal address using address codes from the first and second table entries.

A message transfer device for routing a message in an electric messaging system including a memory and a routing information dataset stored therein that associates an internal address for each user with a routing path, the message comprising an originator address including at least one internal address code, a recipient address including at least external address code, and a message text, the message transfer device comprising:

• (a) an outbound conversion table stored in the memory of the electronic messaging system, the outbound conversion table including at least one table entry associating an internal address code with a corresponding external address code;
• (b) an inbound conversion table stored in the memory of the electronic messaging system, the inbound conversion table including at least one table entry associating an external address code with a corresponding internal address code;
• (c) a search key generator capable of generating a first search key comprising a set of address codes parsed from predetermined positions of the originator address and a second search key comprising a set of address codes parsed from predetermined positions of the recipient address;
• (d) a conversion table access module adapted to retrieve an entry from the outbound conversion table identified by the first search key and an entry from the inbound conversion table identified by the second search key;
• and
• (e) a router module adapted to replace an internal address code in the originator address by an external address code from the retrieved outbound conversion table entry and to replace an external address code in the recipient address by an internal address code from the retrieved inbound conversion table entry.