Always
On Email is a fully featured multi-user push email solution, which
delivers email to users wherever, whenever.
It complements established email applications,
offering choice of Pocket PC based PDAs or Microsoft based Smartphones,
and choice in the transport technology (GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth,
WiFi).
The GPRS infrastructure consists of
2 key elements:
1] Enterprise
server
The Always On Server is designed to be deployed
on a Microsoft Windows server situated on a corporate network.
The server uses MAPI (Message Application Programming Interface)
and CDO (Collaboration Data Objects) to monitor users' Microsoft
Exchange mailboxes. When new mail arrives in an inbox, the Always
On server stores a reference to the email until their PDA picks
it up. When the user connects, the server retrieves the message,
removes all unnecessary formatting, compresses, encrypts, and
pushes it to the PDA.
The Always On server is designed to be run
by the IT department and, so includes features for administrators
to tailor the service to individual users' needs - eg the ability
to add and remove accounts, and providing control over attributes
like message truncation levels on a global and individual basis.
2]
Client for PDA / Smart Devices
Written in C/C++, the PDA client resides on
the user's device, maintaining a connection to the Always On Server
using UDP/IP over GPRS, GSM or WiFi. If mail destined for the
PDA clients is waiting on the Always On server, and a data connection
is available, it decrypts, decompresses and presents the mail
message to the user in the Pocket Inbox.
The client must be able to connect to the
public internet (or wherever the Always On Server resides). This
connection is made via an inbuilt GPRS module, or Bluetooth, infrared
or cable, to a device capable of GPRS, GSM or WiFi connectivity.
In addition to delivering email, the software
uses status messages to communicate between the PDA and the Always
On Server to update the status of email messages (eg read, unread,
deleted, or sent) so the PDA and office based email account always
present the same view of a user's inbox.
Security: The application
uses 128-bit triple DES (3DES) to encrypt all messages that are
moved between the Always On Server and the PDA client. This means
that only the Always On Server and the PDA client can decrypt
and read messages.
