Abstract: In an electronic messaging system which has multiple sites, and in which each site is defined by a unique address space and has connectivity to at least one other site, messages are sent by receiving at a first site message routing information from a second site. The message routing information defines routes from the second site to one or more of the plurality of sites. The received message routing information is assimilated into previously known routing information to generate an updated accumulation of routing information. The updated accumulation of routing information is used to route messages to one or more of the plurality of sites. The updated accumulation of routing information may be replicated to still other sites in the messaging system, which in turn assimilate the information into their respective collections of known routing information.

Abstract: Message traffic is balanced between a plurality of alternative message routes connecting a plurality sites in an electronic messaging system by assigning a cost to each potential message route between the plurality of sites. The cost defines a desired relative frequency of usage for the corresponding message route. A weight is calculated for each potential message route based on its assigned cost of connecting one site to another site. A message route between the one site and the other site is chosen based on the collective calculated weights and a message is transmitted over the chosen message route from one site to the other site.