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. A method for electronic communication, the method comprising:
 electronically getting a telecommunications number of a proposed recipient of an email message, the telecommunications number being an addressing index of the proposed recipient of the email message, the email message also having at least one message originator; 
 automatically and electronically submitting the telecommunications number for use as an index into a database of public keys, the database of public keys including 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 text file maintained by a client email program, a text file maintained by a client browser, 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 on within a telecommunications number detector; 
 automatically and electronically obtaining from the database of public keys a public key which corresponds to the telecommunications number; and 
 automatically and electronically providing the public key for use in at least one of the following: encryption, authentication, a secure transaction; 
 wherein the method further comprises authenticating telecommunications numbers before using them as indexes into the database of public keys; and 
 wherein the method provides the public key which corresponds to the telecommunications number of the proposed recipient of the email message without requiring an a priori public key exchange between the message recipient and the message sender. 
 
     
     
       2. The electronic communication method of  claim 1 , wherein the telecommunications number includes at least one of: a publicly listed number, an unlisted number, a toll-free number, a toll number, a voice telephone number which can also be used for voice communications, a fax number which can also be used for fax-to-fax communications, an internet connection number which can also be used for internet access, a mobile phone number. 
     
     
       3. The electronic communication method of  claim 1 , wherein automatically and electronically obtaining from the database of public keys a public key which corresponds to the telecommunications number includes automatically and electronically obtaining from the database of public keys a public key certificate which corresponds to the telecommunications number. 
     
     
       4. The electronic communication method of  claim 3 , wherein the method includes automatically and electronically obtaining from the database of public keys an X.509 public key certificate which corresponds to the telecommunications number. 
     
     
       5. The electronic communication method of  claim 1 , wherein the method includes automatically and electronically obtaining from the database of public keys a public key certificate which corresponds to the telecommunications number in that the telecommunications number is embedded in the public key certificate. 
     
     
       6. A method for electronic communication, the method comprising:
 electronically getting a telecommunications number of a proposed recipient of an email message, the email message also having at least one message originator; 
 automatically and electronically submitting the telecommunications number for use as an index into a database of public keys, the database of public keys including 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 text file maintained by a client email program, a text file maintained by a client browser, 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 on within a telecommunications number detector; 
 automatically and electronically obtaining from the database of public keys a public key which corresponds to the telecommunications number; and automatically and electronically providing the public key for use in electronic communication; 
 wherein the method further comprises authenticating telecommunications numbers before using them as indexes into the database of public keys; and 
 wherein the method provides the public key which corresponds to the telecommunications number of the proposed recipient of the email message without requiring a negotiation between the proposed recipient and the message originator(s) to transfer the public key and without requiring an a priori public key exchange between the message recipient and the message sender. 
 
     
     
       7. The electronic communication method of  claim 6 , wherein the method electronically gets a telecommunications number by getting a telecommunications number which is an addressing index of the proposed recipient of the email message. 
     
     
       8. The electronic communication method of  claim 6 , wherein the method electronically gets a telecommunications number by getting a telecommunications number which is an email address of the proposed recipient of the email message. 
     
     
       9. The electronic communication method of  claim 6 , wherein the email message contains content obtained from at least one of the following: a video stream, an audio file, live video, voice, or voicemail. 
     
     
       10. The electronic communication method of  claim 6 , wherein automatically and electronically obtaining from the database of public keys a public key which corresponds to the telecommunications number includes automatically and electronically obtaining from the database of public keys a public key certificate which corresponds to the telecommunications number. 
     
     
       11. The electronic communication method of  claim 6 , wherein the method includes automatically and electronically obtaining from the database of public keys a public key certificate which corresponds to the telecommunications number in that the telecommunications number is embedded in the public key certificate. 
     
     
       12. The electronic communication method of  claim 6 , wherein the telecommunications number includes at least one of: a publicly listed number, an unlisted number, a toll-free number, a toll number, a voice telephone number which can also be used for voice communications, a fax number which can also be used for fax-to-fax communications, an internet connection number which can also be used for internet access, a mobile phone number.