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Microsoft push is in reality HTTP based pull but it is not worse than RIM BlackBerry solution June 11, 2005 [General] | By Edward J. R. Microsoft's Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Exchange will bring "push email for masses" in the sense that no monthly fee will be necessary, even small companies will be able to afford push email and actually no additional infrastructure (like BlackBerry servers or service) is needed: Sounds great! Is there a catch? Yes, kind of! While RIM BlackBerry's solution requires additional servers, it also is based on WAP push what means that is is inherently more expensive that Microsoft solution: simulation of push by performing HTTP pull all the time to Microsoft Exchange servers. Here is is how Microsoft's push work explained in lay terms: The device issues an HTTP request to Exchange, which asks Exchange to report any changes that occur in the mailbox of the requesting user within a specified time limit. The URL of this HTTP request is the same as that of other AirSync commands ("/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync") with some differing query string parameters. The body of the HTTP request allows the client to specify those folders that Exchange should monitor for changes. Typically, these will be the Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks folders. Upon receiving this request, Exchange will monitor the specified folders until either the time limit expires or a change (such as the arrival of a piece of email) occurs in one of those folders, whichever comes first. Exchange will then issue a response to this request that notes in which folders the changes occurred. Of course, this will be empty if the time limit elapsed before any changes occurred. Upon receiving an empty response, the device simply re-issues the request. This loop of issuing a request for change notifications, receiving an empty response, and re-issuing the request for change notifications is called "the heartbeat." Upon receiving a non-empty response, the device issues a synchronization request against each folder in the response. When those complete, it re-issues the request for change notifications. You can learn more details about mechanism of Microsoft's new push here. Conclusion: in practice when there is no new email the device is sending a HTTP request to Microsoft Exchange server every 5 to 20 minutes and thanks to request re-issuing in practice a true push is achieved. However thanks to use of existing components (Microsoft Exchange, Windows Mobile devices) and simply applying a patch to them, the Microsoft's implementation is much cheaper than BlackBerry for deployment and for every day usage. Administrators of Microsoft Exchange servers don't have to cope with operators and with 3rd party service/server providers (like RIM BlackBerry) - all they need to do is to install patches and configure the service! Microsoft's offering will cost nothing to implement (server side) and their current base of Exchange customers is huge. To learn more about Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 click here - it is not yet released yet but in September 2005 first Windows Mobile devices will go on sale and then also this Service Pack will be available for sure. Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 15 Comments ] << Previous Story Next Story >>

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