Tech at Play

To put paid to the endless rounds of Internet and forums posting of what exactly is "push mail", I hereby put forth Gartner’s definition of this sometimes thorny discussion topic.

Currently there are a few main methods by which the above is achieved.  Note that some of them might not intuitively come across as "push" in nature; yet they do meet the above definition.

BlackBerry Push

Only RIM uses this mechanism.  Every BlackBerry device connects back to a NOC (Network Operating Center) operated by RIM via a private APN (Access Point Name) via the subscriber’s telco of choice – one for each telco.  THe BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) is hosted at the customer’s premises which connects through the Internet to the NOC.

When roaming to foreign networks that have a GRX (GPRS Roaming Exchange Node) agreement with the home operator, traffic simply passes through both foreign and home network en-route to the NOC.  Alternatively, where a GRX agreement is not present but where the foreign operator has an agreement with RIM to support its NOC and private APN – traffic will be routed accordingly to the NOC as well.

However, in situations where there is no GRX agreements or the foreign operator has no prior agreement with RIM, the BlackBerry service will be unavailable.  Bottomline: Manually check ahead with your home telco that the countries you are visiting for your business trip(s) supports the BlackBerry.

Microsoft Direct Push

Direct Push is Microsoft’s new approach implemented via Exchange Server 2003 SP2.  It utilizes a non-NOC approach and is not APN dependant (Though customers are free ot negotiate for a private APN with their home operator).  It is sometimes presented as a "notification-based synchronization" method; however it meets the criteria for "Push Mail" as set forth above.

Additional information on how this works can be found under the Direct Push Guide series – How Does Direct Push Really Work?

IP Push

This mechanism is used by Good Technology and Intellisync, among others.  All that is required is Internet access from the home operator or a foreign one.  More articles on solutions categorized under "IP Push" will be out shortly.

IP Pull

Extended Systems uses this mechanism as well as certain implementations of Intellisync.  It is also how Microsoft’s first foray into push mail; called Always-Up-To-Date (AUTD) works.  Upon notification by means such as receipt of an incoming SMS message, synchronization is initiated by the wireless handset.

IMAP (With IDLE)

The only protocol not specifically designed with push mail in mind, IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) works very similarly to how Microsoft’s Direct Push is implemented – it would probably be fair to say that Direct Push probably got its inspiration from IMAP.  It is nevertheless worth a mention because all it requires is a suitable IMAP client implementation with a properly configured server.

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