Message Routing

Abstract

Methods, devices, signals, and systems are provided in a message routing architecture which provides improved capabilities for integrating “digital” communication through email messages with “analog” communication through voice and/or fax or pager messages. Email can be addressed using nothing more than a standard telephone or fax number. If the registered owner of the telephone or fax number has a corresponding email address, then the invention converts the telephone or fax number to the email address for delivery and uses standard email delivery systems to deliver the message. If no conventional delivery email address is known, or if the message sender or recipient specify multiple delivery modes, then the email message content is transformed into voice, pager and/or fax content and delivered to the recipient using the telephone or fax number which was specified as the email address. Familiar telecommunications services such as call forwarding and selective call blocking can also be used with messages that originate as email. The invention also supports use of telecommunications numbers as indexes into databases which contain public key certificates, to make it unnecessary for a proposed message recipient to provide its public key expressly in advance to each particular proposed message originator.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by patent is: 
     
         1 - 162 . (canceled) 
     
     
         163 . A communication method, comprising:
 receiving in a computer memory a telecommunications number for an intended recipient of a message;   automatically using the telecommunications number to identify a digital certificate;   automatically determining, via the digital certificate, a public key corresponding to the telecommunications number or a Key Negotiation Parameter corresponding to the telecommunications number; and   using the public key or the Key Negotiation Parameter or both in an attempt to do at least one of the following: encrypt the message, authenticate the message, or deliver the message to the intended recipient.   
     
     
         164 . The method of  claim 163 , further comprising authenticating the telecommunications number. 
     
     
         165 . The method of  claim 164 , wherein authenticating the telecommunications number comprises using at least one of the following: biometric authentication, automatic number identification, Caller-ID. 
     
     
         166 . The method of  claim 164 , wherein authenticating the telecommunications number comprises using at least one of the following: a digital signature, another digital certificate. 
     
     
         167 . The method of  claim 163 , wherein the identified digital certificate is an X.509 digital certificate. 
     
     
         168 . The method of  claim 167 , wherein the identified X.509 digital certificate includes the telecommunications number in a location of the X.509 digital certificate which is designated by X.509 for data which is not telecommunications number data. 
     
     
         169 . The method of  claim 163 , wherein the method identifies the digital certificate in at least one of the following: an X.509 database, an X.500 database, a database built on-the-fly by one or more individual message originators, a relational database, a hierarchical object-oriented database, a database built by an Internet service provider, a database built by a telecommunications service provider, a database maintained by a regional telephone company, a database maintained by a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), a database maintained by an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), a database maintained on an email gateway, a database located on a client machine, a database located on a server machine, a database located on a web site, or a database located within a telecommunications number detector. 
     
     
         170 . A communication method, comprising:
 receiving in a computer memory a mobile phone telephone number for an intended recipient of a message;   automatically using the mobile phone telephone number to identify a digital certificate;   automatically determining, via the digital certificate, a public key corresponding to the mobile phone telephone number or a Key Negotiation Parameter corresponding to the mobile phone telephone number; and   using the public key or the Key Negotiation Parameter or both in an attempt to do at least one of the following: encrypt the message, authenticate the message, or deliver the message to the intended recipient.   
     
     
         171 . The method of  claim 170 , wherein the message includes a live voice communication. 
     
     
         172 . The method of  claim 170 , wherein the message includes a voicemail communication. 
     
     
         173 . The method of  claim 170 , wherein the message includes an email communication. 
     
     
         174 . The method of  claim 170 , wherein the method facilitates secure communication without requiring a prior key exchange between an originator of the message and the intended recipient of the message. 
     
     
         175 . The method of  claim 170 , wherein the identified digital certificate includes the mobile phone telephone number in a serial number of the digital certificate. 
     
     
         176 . A communication method, comprising:
 receiving in a computer memory a telecommunications number for an intended recipient of a message;   automatically using the telecommunications number to identify a digital certificate by locating the telecommunications number in a signed part of the digital certificate;   automatically locating in the identified digital certificate a public key corresponding to the telecommunications number or a Key Negotiation Parameter corresponding to the telecommunications number; and   using the public key or the Key Negotiation Parameter or both in an attempt to do at least one of the following: encrypt the message, authenticate the message, or deliver the message to the intended recipient.   
     
     
         177 . The method of  claim 176 , wherein the telecommunications number includes at least one of the following: a pre-existing voice line number identifying a telephone number which can be used for live voice communications, a pre-existing voice line number identifying a telephone number which can be used for voicemail communications, a pre-existing fax line number identifying a fax number which can be used for fax-to-fax communications. 
     
     
         178 . The method of  claim 176 , wherein the method identifies the digital certificate in at least one of the following: an X.509 database, an X.500 database, a relational database, a hierarchical object-oriented database. 
     
     
         179 . The method of  claim 176 , wherein the method identifies the digital certificate in at least one of the following: a database built on-the-fly by one or more individual message originators, a database built by an Internet service provider, a database built by a telecommunications service provider, a database maintained by a regional telephone company, a database maintained by a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), a database maintained by an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC). 
     
     
         180 . The method of  claim 176 , wherein the method identifies the digital certificate in at least one of the following: a database maintained on an email gateway, a database located on a client machine, a database located on a server machine, a database located on a web site, or a database located within a telecommunications number detector. 
     
     
         181 . The method of  claim 170 , wherein the telecommunications number is a personal number. 
     
     
         182 . The method of  claim 170 , wherein the telecommunications number is a business number.