FACSIMILE INTERNET TRANSMISSION SYSTEM
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention This invention pertains generally to communication between devices which are not typically Internet-ready because they lack the required Internet communication protocols. More specifically, this invention enables communication between fax machines over the Internet as opposed to using conventional long-distance switched telephone network lines.
2. State of the Art
Communication is becoming increasingly important as the global economy places more and more emphasis on information. Businesses in particular must be able to rapidly and reliably transmit and receive information. As we manage more information, our need for rapid information transmission has likewise increased. For example, we need only look at the history of telecommunications with the telegraph, the telephone and telex machines, each providing a different manner of information transmission which built upon the previous method. The telex in particular provided a greatly needed method for the transmission of written information. The modern breakthrough which improved the telex was the facsimile (Fax) machine. Facsimile capabilities are no longer even an option for most large and even many small businesses as use of fax machines is now generally ubiquitous throughout the business world. The need for rapid and reliable communication, however, is not limited only to the commercial world. The military has always recognized the importance of maintaining communication lines open in all circumstances. The interest of the government was so keen that it launched the DARPA project. DARPA
consisted of a computer network which did not rely on any single node for its existence. On the contrary, it was specifically designed to provide multiple pathways for communication to flow from a source to a destination. The successor to the DARPA project is now the better known and widely used Internet. The most widely recognized communication product of the Internet is referred to generically as electronic mail (email) . Email, like a facsimile transmission, also communicates by the written word, but without a hard or paper copy being needed at the source of transmission or the destination. Instead, the message arrives encoded in a type of binary format in computer memory for retrieval and display on a computer monitor. A comparison of data transmission by facsimile and by email reveals several important differences other than the paper versus the paperless distinction described above. Most importantly, a facsimile transmission is traditionally accomplished via the switched public telephone networks. Therefore, a long distance facsimile transmission costs the same as a long distance voice telephone call. At today's facsimile transmission and reception speeds, the cost can be prohibitive when the source and destination are far apart or on different continents.
In contrast, email transmitted over the Internet provides a very different cost structure associated with it. Typically, a user accesses a local provider to the Internet by dialing to a site with a dedicated Internet connection. There is usually a monthly flat fee for unlimited access through the provider. Consequently, there are typically no long distance telephone charges involved in sending or receiving email.
Several methods have been proposed or implemented for overcoming the drawbacks of slow facsimile
transmission speeds and high long distance telephone costs. These efforts have focused on compression of facsimiles to shorten transmission time, grouping and delaying facsimile transmissions until telephone rates are lower than at peak hours, using facsimile servers that provide store-and-forward facsimile capability, automatic facsimile send-retry in case of destination busy signals, automatic broadcasting of a facsimile to a list of recipients, and several other methods which all focus on using the existing public switching telephone system.
For example, U.S. Patent No. 5,410,416 by Amberg et al. apparently teaches that multiple low-speed facsimiles can be bundled together into a single facsimile for transmission to a common distribution point, and then the single facsimile is transmitted as a high-speed facsimile to the distribution point where it is unbundled and dispersed as multiple low-speed facsimiles. Similarly, U.S. Patent Nos. 5,287,199 by Zoccolillo, 5,404,231 by Bloomfield, and 5,459,584 by Gordon et al. apparently teach varying methods of distributing, routing and otherwise increasing facsimile throughput on a publicly switched telephone network. One of the main problems with these patents is that while they attempt to decrease facsimile transmission time for groups of facsimiles, their methods do nothing to decrease the costs of sending a single facsimile a long distance. For example, many of the patents address the issue of sending the same facsimile to multiple sites. However, if a business deals in a high volume of unique facsimile transmissions, as most businesses do, then storing and forwarding to a distribution point becomes pointless if this is the only improvement offered. Furthermore, all long distance facsimile
transmissions, regardless of whether they are sent during off-peak hours or are bundled together, must be sent over a public or private switched telephone network and will thus incur long distance telephone charges. Therefore, it would be an advantage over the state of the art to be able to combine the advantages of inexpensive and rapid long distance communication over the Internet with the ability to send written information by facsimile without incurring long distance telephone charges. This requires that devices which do not ordinarily have the ability to transmit data over the Internet be provided with the capability of transmitting data using Internet communication protocols. Essentially, it would be an advantage over the state of the art to enable any non-Transport Connect Protocol/Internet Protocol (non-TCP/IP) device to communicate over the Internet. It would also be an advantage to be able to send facsimile transmissions over the Internet to a plurality of different destinations simultaneously, thus freeing up a business's local telephone line for other purposes. It would also be an advantage to be able to transmit a facsimile to a remote destination which does not have local Internet access over a switched telephone network at a reduced rate below the normal long distance telephone rate that a facsimile would require. It would be a further advantage to provide subscribers a local access number to which clients could send a facsimile where a virtual facsimile device would then transmit a facsimile to a remotely located home office. It would be a distinct advantage to be able to cross the boundary between message formats and send a facsimile to an electronic mail address on the Internet. Likewise, it would be an advantage to be able to receive a facsimile from an Internet email message utilizing the Internet
for transmitting the long distance portion of the message, and a switched telephone network for the local transmission. Finally, it would be a great advantage to be able to provide the ability to redirect or forward a facsimile to any fax machine, facsimile modem or even to an email address while still avoiding long distance telephone charges.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for transmitting a facsimile between devices over the Internet even though the devices are not equipped to encapsulate the facsimile within Internet packets using the appropriate Internet communication protocols.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus to enable devices which lack
Internet communication protocols to transmit data over the Internet which would otherwise travel long distance on a switched telephone network.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a plurality of devices having dedicated Internet connections which are also coupled to a switched telephone network and act as a translation conduit for data transmitted between the Internet and the switched telephone network.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for enabling the delivery of a single facsimile over the Internet to a switched telephone network and then to a plurality of local receiving fax machines.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for translating a facsimile into an email message format for delivery to an electronic mail address on the Internet.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for translating an email message originally transmitted via the Internet to a facsimile format for delivery to a fax machine on a switched telephone network.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for redirecting incoming facsimiles to an alternative fax machine, facsimile modem or Internet email address. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for providing a local switched telephone network number which provides access to an Internet device capable of redirecting facsimiles received at that location to a receiving fax machine located a long distance telephone call away from the local number via the Internet.
Still yet another object is to provide a method for encryption of a facsimile transmitted over the Internet such that the facsimile is at least as secure as one transmitted over a switched telephone network.
These and other objects of the present invention are provided in a facsimile Internet transmission system which enables fax machines to transmit and receive data over the Internet and consequently avoid long distance publicly or privately switched telephone network charges. This ability would enable a device which ordinarily cannot communicate over the Internet because it lacks the requisite communication protocols to bridge the gap between Internet and switched telephone network communications. Essentially, the apparatus consists of at least two FaxEngines to act as translator and Internet conduit. A FaxEngine is a device which is coupled simultaneously to the Internet and to a publicly or privately switched telephone network and provides the ability to encapsulate a facsimile into Internet packets
using an appropriate Internet communication protocol, or do the reverse and decode Internet packets back into the original facsimile. In typical operation, the method consists of a subscriber a) dialing a local FaxEngine number on a publicly or privately switched telephone network, b) entering the destination facsimile number or numbers, and c) pressing the start key to begin facsimile transfer. The FaxEngine a) receives the facsimile, b) encapsulates it into Internet packets using an Internet communication protocol such as TCP/IP, c) encrypts the message, d) transmits the message over the Internet to a second FaxEngine which is preferably only a local publicly or privately switched telephone network call from the receiving fax machine, e) the second FaxEngine extracts the receiving fax machine telephone number from the message, f) the receiving fax machine is then called by the second FaxEngine via the switched telephone network, and if the receiving fax machine answers, g) the second FaxEngine decrypts the facsimile, h) translates the message into a facsimile format, and i) the message is transmitted to the receiving fax machine.
One advantage to the method and apparatus of the preferred embodiment described above is that the connect time to a FaxEngine is reduced if the same facsimile is intended for delivery to a plurality of fax machines. The invention requires transmission of the facsimile only once to the FaxEngine. The FaxEngine stores the facsimile until it has been successfully transmitted to all intended fax machines. This not only eliminates long distance phone charges, but it also enables the sender to make other use of a telephone line after sending the facsimile to the FaxEngine instead of tying up a line by repeatedly sending the same facsimile to each of the multiple facsimile recipients.
Another advantage of the invention is that if a FaxEngine is not a local telephone call from the sending or receiving fax machine, the system still enables transmission of facsimiles at a reduced rate as opposed to normal long distance telephone rates which the sender would be billed. This is accomplished by taking advantage of high volume long distance telephone contracts. This enables the present invention to always make long distance facsimile transmission less expensive than a conventional long distance direct dialed call.
By providing facsimile to Internet email translation, the present invention also bridges an important communication gap between the expanding number of users on the Internet and the large majority of people and businesses which still rely on facsimiles. This translation ability also enables redirection and forwarding of facsimiles which are typically not capable of being rerouted in the same way that voice messages can be routed. By translating facsimiles into an email format, a receiver can more easily access facsimile transmissions from remote locations that would otherwise have to wait until the receiver returned to the original facsimile destination.
As a convenience to clients, a business using the FaxEngine can also set up a virtual fax machine at a site where many clients are located. To send a facsimile to the business, a client need only dial the local fax machine number which is instead a local
FaxEngine access number. The facsimile is received and then sent to the business home office located what is normally a long distance telephone call away. The client thus avoids long distance telephone charges because the business can be communicated with by facsimile as if it was local to the client.
In its broadest application, the present invention advantageously enables transmission of data between devices which are not considered Internet capable by providing an Internet translation medium and a plurality of Internet access sites such that the majority of telephone calls are local. Even when the Internet cannot be utilized to send the message entirely at a local telephone rate, the present invention is still more cost effective by taking advantage of high volume long distance telephone contracts.
These and other objects, features, advantages and alternative aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in combination with the accompanying drawings.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the main components of the present invention which enables transmission of a facsimile via the Internet.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the steps followed by the subscriber when sending a facsimile transmission via the Internet.
FIG. 3 is a breakdown in block diagram form of the main hardware components of a FaxEngine built in accordance with the parameters of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operating process of the FaxEngine.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the decision process followed by a FaxPort portion of a FaxEngine when receiving a facsimile transmission via a switched telephone network.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the decision process followed by a FaxPort portion of a FaxEngine when
sending a facsimile transmission via a switched telephone network.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the decision process followed by an I/O Engine Receive portion of a FaxEngine when receiving a facsimile transmission from the Internet.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the decision process followed by an I/O Engine Send portion of a FaxEngine when transmitting a facsimile to the Internet. FIG. 9 illustrates the block diagram components of the present invention required to implement the FaxCC function whereby the same facsimile is transmitted to a selectable number of different fax machines.
FIG. 10 illustrates the block diagram components required to implement Long Distance Delivery of facsimile transmissions.
FIG. 11 illustrates the block diagram components required to implement FaxMail, or the ability to redirect and forward a facsimile to another facsimile, facsimile modem or email address.
FIG. 12 illustrates the block diagram components required to implement Virtual Fax machine, or the ability to dial a local number as if it were a receiving fax machine, and have the facsimile sent long distance via the Internet to the actual receiving fax machine.
FIG. 13 illustrates the block diagram components required to implement FaxBroadcast to multiple receiving fax machines without the copy limitations of FaxCC.
FIG. 14 illustrates the block diagram components required to implement Facsimile to Email Gateway.
FIG. 15 illustrates the block diagram components required to implement Email to Facsimile Gateway.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Reference will now be made to the drawings in which the various elements of the present invention will be given numerical designations and in which the invention will be discussed so as to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention.
The present invention enables a subscriber to avoid long distance telephone charges which are normally incurred when sending a facsimile (fax) transmission over long distances on a switched telephone network. Presently, a large part of business is conducted by facsimile over conventional switched telephone networks. For example, a user dials the receiving fax machine. If the number is not busy, the user transmits the facsimile to the receiving fax machine. Typically, many fax machines read printed documents and transmit the information as facsimile formatted data across telephone lines. A modified facsimile system can now take advantage of facsimile boards or modems which enable a subscriber to transmit a document saved electronically on a computer as a facsimile without having to first print the document, thereby saving paper. Despite the convenience of the facsimile boards and modems, the sender must still call the receiving fax machine over a switched telephone network, and thus incur long distance phone charges.
FIG. 1 shows how the present invention provides a different price structure and avoids costly long distance phone charges by taking advantage of the local access provided to most users of the Internet. A facsimile transmission is now possible by using an originating fax machine 10 to call a preferably and advantageously local originating FaxEngine 12 which will send the facsimile via the Internet 14 to a receiving
FaxEngine 16 which is preferably but not necessarily local to the receiving fax machine 18. The receiving FaxEngine 16 ideally makes a local call to the receiving fax machine 18 to complete the facsimile transmission. A more detailed description of the facsimile dialing process by the subscriber is illustrated in FIG. 2 which shows the steps to be followed by the subscriber. As can be seen, the process is only slightly more involved than the existing facsimile transmission process in use today. FaxEngines are accessed by dialing a preferably local FaxEngine access number which provides switched telephone network access to a FaxEngine, as shown in step 20. Step 22 is necessary for determining if the subscriber is calling from a preprogrammed and authorized subscriber. If the subscriber is calling from a preprogrammed number, the subscriber only has to enter the receiving fax machine telephone number as in step 24. For increased security, the process of the present invention requires password verification if the dialing number is not one which the FaxEngine recognizes, as shown in step 26. After password verification, the subscriber continues to step 24. The process advantageously enables a subscriber to select the option of sending the same facsimile transmission to other fax machines in step 28. If desired, the subscriber simply continues to enter additional facsimile destination numbers into the originating fax machine in step 30. This process of adding destination fax machine numbers continues until all desired numbers are entered. The process is completed when the subscriber presses the SEND or START button on the originating fax machine 10 in step 32.
The entire process above is precisely the same process used in transmitting an ordinary facsimile using conventional methods, with two important distinctions.
First, no password verification is required when dialing from a location other than a preprogrammed number. This step is important, however, because of the second distinction. Specifically, at least two numbers have been entered into the fax machine. The first number is preferably a local FaxEngine access number. The second number is the destination fax machine. Therefore, regardless of where the facsimile will go in the world, the present invention advantageously avoids most long distance telephone charges through the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 whereby a call to a local Internet provider provides an Internet access path for the facsimile.
FIG. 3 is a breakdown in block diagram form of the main hardware components of a FaxEngine 40 built in accordance with the objects of the present invention.
The FaxEngine 40 is the originating FaxEngine 12 as well as the receiving FaxEngine 16 shown in FIG. 1.
A box 42 is shown drawn around components of the FaxEngine 40 to illustrate divisions in function. The FaxEngine itself is a dedicated interrupt driven computer system. In a preferred embodiment, the computer is an Intel-based Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) computer system. However, this does not mean that a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) based system could not be used.
The computer system is controlled by an Operating System (OS) , and has been implemented in this invention under Windows NT Version 3.5 (44) . Again, this does not eliminate the use of other OSes such as UNIX or any of its variant forms. What is important to the present invention is that the OS have the capability of providing a multitasking operating environment.
The software which implements the method of the present invention is not to be considered in and of
itself as using code structure which is the subject of this patent. Rather, it is the specific functions implemented by the software which are important and are claimed hereinafter. The FaxEngine 40 may be functionally considered as being comprised of a plurality of FaxPorts 46, a Facsimile queue 48, and an Input/Output (I/O) Engine 50. The FaxPorts 46 provide the FaxEngine 40 with communication access to switched telephone network lines 52 for both transmitting and receiving facsimiles. The I/O Engine 50 provides the FaxEngine 40 with Internet access for transmitting and receiving facsimiles which are encapsulated as Internet packets for Internet 14 travel. It should also be mentioned that the Facsimile queue 48 can be eliminated from the FaxEngine 40 entirely by transmitting the facsimile immediately, but has been implemented here in a preferred embodiment.
The FaxPorts 46 have a dual function as mentioned above. They both send and receive facsimiles via a switched telephone network. Communication to a FaxPort from the telephone lines 52 occurs on a thread 56, each thread 56 being capable of both sending and receiving. Each FaxPort 46 is also physically coupled to one Fax Board 54 by way of this . FaxPort thread 56. A typical implementation would use the Brooktrout Fax Board. A Fax Board 54 provides a connection of up to 8 switched telephone network lines 52, with the computer system typically supporting, at present, up to 6 FaxPorts 46 for a total access to forty eight switched telephone network lines 52 by the FaxEngine 40.
The FaxEngine 40 is controlled by a Main FaxEngine Process 38 as shown in FIG. 4. This process 38 enables the FaxEngine 40 to act as a central processor for the control and management of the FaxEngine 40 and the requisite sub-processes to be described. Upon startup,
the Main FaxEngine Process 38 initializes all of the hardware as required and is shown as step 70. Step 72 involves activation of the FaxPorts 46, the FaxPort threads 56, the I/O Engine 50 and the I/O Engine thread 58. These threads 56, 58 manage all Facsimile Boards 54 and Internet interface connections 60.
The Main FaxEngine Process 38 remains in a loop waiting for event notification 76. After receiving a notification from any of the processes it has started, a signal 78 is sent to initiate a check of the notification signal. First, the computer system verifies in step 80 that the notification is valid and not a hardware induced error. This verification 80 can be done in many ways and is not the subject of this patent. If there is no error, the process 38 goes back into a loop to wait for another event notification 76.
For example, an event notification alarm might be a system alert indicating that diagnostic software is to be executed. The next step 82 is to test and diagnose hardware. Step 82 could either be accomplished automatically by the system with automatic diagnostic software, or a message or other indicator could alert a computer system administrator that the system needed servicing. If the diagnostic step 82 is automatic, the failed hardware is disabled by the computer system so as not to interfere with the computer system operation.
As FIG. 4 indicates, step 72 activates FaxPort and I/O Engine subprocesses. The FaxPort 46 process is actually two separate processes, sending 99 and receiving 98. The Sending Process 99 is defined as the steps which occur in the receiving FaxEngine 16 when it has received an encrypted facsimile via the Internet 14, and what must occur to send it to a receiving fax machine 18. The Receiving Process 98 is defined as the
steps which occur in the originating FaxEngine 12 when it receives a facsimile from an originating fax machine 10 and must transmit it via the Internet 14 to the receiving FaxEngine 16. The first process to be described is the Facsimile Receiving Process 98. Facsimiles are sent and received via the switched telephone network 52 as shown in FIG. 3. FIG 5 illustrates as a flow chart the process 98 to be described. The first step 100 comprises resetting the phone lines 52 and configuring the Fax Board 54 hardware as necessary. The FaxPort thread 56 then waits in a loop for one of two events. The first event 98 is an incoming call arriving from the switched telephone network lines 52. The second event is a notification that a facsimile needs to be sent 99.
In the FaxPort Receive Process 98, the FaxPort thread 56 enters a continuous loop 102 by waiting for notification from hardware that a call has been received. This loop continues, in a preferred embodiment, for about 20 seconds. After 20 seconds, the loop times out and the process 98 determines in step 104 whether a call has bee received. If no call has been received, the process 98 determines whether there are any outgoing facsimiles to send in step 106. If there are waiting facsimiles, the process goes to the FaxPort Send Process 99 to be discussed in FIG. 6.
If an incoming call is detected in step 104, the FaxPort thread 56 authenticates the subscriber to the network. Authentication 108 involves retrieving the originating fax machine number from the Fax Board 54 using Automatic Number Identification (ANI) . Alternatively, authentication can be accomplished by attachment of a device to the telephone line of the originating fax machine 10 which transmits the number automatically. If the originating fax machine 10 is
calling from a known number 110 (one that has been preconfigured) , then the subscriber of the originating fax machine 10 is prompted to provide the phone number of the destination fax machine 18 in step 112. The subscriber is then able to select additional facsimile destination machines 18 in step 114 if the same facsimile will be sent more than once.
Before proceeding further, assume that the originating fax machines' number is not known because it was not preconfigured in Facsimile Engine 12 memory. In this case, an automated greeting is started in step 116 which requests the originating fax machine 10 to input a password, in a preferred embodiment, via a touch tone telephone or alternately by a DTMF signal. If the password is verified as correct in step 118, the subscriber is allowed to proceed to step 112 where fax machine recipients are selected. If, however, the password is invalid, the system determines how many attempts have been made in step 120 to input a correct password. If some predetermined attempt limit is exceeded, the subscriber is informed by a prerecorded message that the password attempt limit is exceeded in step 122. The system then hangs up the line and is reset for use in step 124. If the limit was not exceeded in step 120, a prerecorded message informs the subscriber that the password was incorrect and the subscriber is prompted to re-enter the password again in step 116.
Once all receiving facsimile numbers are entered in step 114, the subscriber of the originating fax machine 10 presses START or SEND. At this point, the FaxEngine 12 is directed to negotiate communication parameters such as transmission speed with the originating fax machine 10 in step 126. If the correct features are negotiated in step 128, the FaxPort thread 56 receives
the facsimile into memory or a buffer in step 130. If no errors were detected by the FaxEngine 12 in step 132, the facsimile is encrypted in step 134, for example, using the RΞA encryption algorithm by RSA Data Security, Inc. The encrypted facsimile is then sent to a queue in step 136, it is logged to accounting in step 138, and the line hangs up and is reset in step 140.
Two important observations are that first, whenever correct features are not negotiated in step 128 or there are hardware errors, the failures or errors are noted and logged to accounting in step 138, the line hangs up and is reset. The second observation is that when the encrypted facsimile is queued in step 136, the facsimile is then sent to the I/O Engine for transmission over the Internet after encapsulation as Internet packets.
In FIG. 5, step 106, a determination was made by the FaxPort receive process 98 of whether any facsimiles were waiting to be transmitted to a receiving fax machine 18. This occurs because the originating FaxEngine 12 can simultaneously and advantageously function as a receiving FaxEngine 16. If facsimiles are waiting, the FaxPort send process 99 proceeds as shown in FIG. 6.
The first step 170 of FIG. 6 is shown to be a loading and locking of the facsimile to be sent from the receiving FaxEngine 16 to the receiving Fax machine 18.
The facsimile is loaded in its encrypted format in a memory buffer until actually transmitted. Step 172 shows that the FaxPort process 99 instructs the FaxEngine 16 to open a switched telephone line 52. For clarity, refer back to FIG. 3 which shows that a FaxPort
46 with an associated FaxPort thread 56 opens one of eight telephone lines 52 controlled by a single Fax
Board 54. If no incoming call is detected on the opened telephone line in step 174, the FaxPort process 99
instructs the FaxEngine 16 to dial, via the switched telephone network, the number of the receiving fax machine 18.
It should be obvious that in order to dial the telephone number of the receiving fax machine 18, that information cannot be part of the encrypted facsimile waiting in FaxEngine 16 memory. This is not a problem because the receiving facsimile number is generally not confidential in nature. It is the contents of the facsimile which should be and are protected.
After dialing the receiving fax machine 18, the FaxEngine 16 determines if the receiving fax machine 18 answered the line in step 178. If there is no answer or if the line was answered but it was not the receiving fax machine 18, a failure is logged in step 180. Furthermore, the lock on the facsimile is released in step 182, and the FaxPort 46 determines if there have been too many failed attempts (exceeded a predetermined limit) to reach the receiving fax machine 18 in step 184. If the failure limit is not exceeded, the line is hung up and reset in step 186. However, if the failure limit is exceeded, the FaxPort 46 generates a facsimile to the sender of the facsimile in step 188; the facsimile explaining why the failure occurred. If it is determined that the receiving fax machine 18 did answer the telephone line in step 178, the Fax Board 54 negotiates communication parameters with the receiving fax machine 18 in step 190.
If the FaxEngine 16 and receiving fax machine 18 do not negotiate successfully as determined in step 192, the failure is logged and the FaxPort 46 executes steps step 180 to 186. If the negotiation is successful, the facsimile is now decrypted. The reason for waiting to decrypt the facsimile until the receiving fax machine 18 is ready to receive is very practical. For example, if
the receiving fax machine 18 cannot be reached, the facsimile will obviously not be sent. However, if the facsimile was already decrypted earlier, the time and resources of the FaxEngine 16 have been wasted. Furthermore, if the message is decrypted, the facsimile loses protection against prying electronic fingers, and facsimile security is needlessly placed in jeopardy.
After decryption, the facsimile is delivered to the Fax Board 54 for transmission to the receiving fax machine 18 in step 196. After transmission of the facsimile, the FaxEngine 16 queries the Fax Board 54 in step 198 to determine if delivery of the facsimile was successful. A failure produces another error log entry in steps 180 through 186. However, if successful, a log entry is entered in step 200 and the line is hung up and reset in step 202.
Thus far, the discussion has explained the process of communication between the fax machines 10, 18 and the FaxEngines 12, 16 via the switched telephone network. Still to be addressed is the process of communication between the originating and receiving FaxEngines 12, 16 via the Internet 14.
FIG. 7 illustrates the I/O Engine process 206 executed by the receiving I/O Engine 50. In step 210, the receiving I/O Engine 50 waits for incoming data from the Internet 14. When detection of incoming data occurs (notification of incoming Internet packet traffic) , the I/O Engine 50 starts a receiving I/O Engine thread 58 as shown in FIG. 3 and illustrated by step 212. To initiate the transfer of data from the originating FaxEngine 12, there must also be an authentication process with the peer (originating FaxEngine 12) as shown in step 214. Essentially, the authentication process verifies that the facsimile is being transferred to the intended recipient.
After authentication, the data comprising the facsimile is transferred as shown by step 216. At this point, step 218 shows that the facsimile is queued in anticipation of initiation of the FaxPort send process 99 which will transmit the facsimile to the receiving fax machine 18. The queue process is essentially storage of the facsimile in volatile memory or on a hard disk until it is ready to be sent to a receiving fax machine 18. The I/O Engine thread 58 is also released so that other incoming facsimiles may be received.
The I/O Engine send process 204 as illustrated in
FIG. 8 has more activities to control than the receiving process 206 of FIG. 7. First, the originating FaxEngine
12 receives the facsimile from the originating fax machine 10, the process being controlled by the FaxPort receive process 98. After an event notification is generated from the FaxPort receive process 98 that a facsimile is being received, the I/O Engine send process
204 initiates an I/O Engine thread 58 in step 230. The process 204 then waits for the facsimile to arrive at the incoming facsimile queue in step 232. When the facsimile arrives, step 234 indicates that the recipient list is loaded based upon the information received from the originating fax machine 10. Selection of one or more receiving FaxEngines 16 in step 236 is based upon the switched telephone network area code and the first three digits of the seven digit telephone number.
If a receiving FaxEngine 16 is not remote relative to the originating FaxEngine 12 as determined in step 237, the facsimile transmission process is simplified by proceeding directly to step 238 which loads the local facsimile into the outgoing facsimile queue where the FaxPort send process 99 of FIG. 6 contacts the receiving fax machine 18.
However, if the receiving fax machine 18 is remote, the facsimile must travel over the Internet 14. Step 240 shows that the FaxEngines 12, 16 must authenticate as described previously, the facsimile is encapsulated into Internet packets using an appropriate Internet protocol such as TCP/IP in step 242, and the facsimile is transmitted in step 244.
Step 246 indicates that the process of steps 236 through 248 must be repeated for each receiving fax machine 18 whose telephone number was entered by a subscriber on the originating fax machine 10, where step 248 consists of the telephone number of the next receiving fax machine 18 being loaded into memory for determination of whether the recipient is local or remote.
If there are no more recipients as determined in step 246, the next step is 250 where a status check is made to determine whether the facsimile transmission to all receiving fax machines 18 was successful. If not, the facsimile is queued for transmission in step 252 in the outgoing facsimile queue. However, if successful, the facsimile is removed from memory in step 254, and the process 204 is complete for that particular facsimile. An important feature of the present invention is the two-step process for handling errors or failures in transmissions. These events trigger an accounting log to record the event, and more importantly, provide feedback to an operator such as the sender of the facsimile that the process has failed. Notification is typically done by facsimile to the appropriate party. Ideally, the accounting log is able to indicate where the failure occurred in the process. If the failure is local or remote, it might be repaired through self diagnostic procedures of the FaxEngine 12 or 16. If the
failure is at a fax machine 10 or 18, repair to the originating fax machine 10 or a call to the receiving fax machine 18 owner might solve the problem. The key issue is that the subscriber is not left wondering where the process has failed so that appropriate repair procedures might be implemented.
Another feature which bears greater explanation are the FaxEngine components. As explained previously, the FaxEngine is shown in FIG. 3 as being controlled by a Main FaxEngine Process 38 which oversees operation of the hardware described as the FaxPorts 46, the Facsimile queue 48 and the I/O Engine 50. It is important to observe again that it is not essential to implement a Facsimile queue 48 in the FaxEngine 40. Alternative embodiments allow for immediate transmission of the facsimile instead of implementing a queue structure. The facsimiles might also be stored on a hard disk in random order. The facsimiles are logged with a time/date stamp in order to process facsimiles in the order received. This change may be implemented without having to change the Main FaxEngine Process 38 itself.
While the detailed description above has focused on the main feature of the present invention of facsimile transmission via the Internet, there are several other services which the present invention makes both feasible and desirable. These additional services are called FaxCC, Long Distance Delivery, FaxMail, Virtual FaxMachine, Facsimile Broadcast, Email to Facsimile Gateway, and Facsimile to Email Gateway. The FaxCC service is illustrated in FIG. 9, and provides the ability to transmit the same facsimile to multiple destination sites (up to five) without having to dial each individual receiving fax machine 18. Instead, the facsimile is transmitted only one time to the originating FaxEngine 12. The FaxEngine 12 is
tasked with distributing the facsimile to the multiple destinations as entered by the subscriber from the originating fax machine 10. The Figure is illustrated as shown to indicate that there may be more than one receiving FaxEngine 16 in order to reach up to five different receiving fax machines 18.
The functionality of the FaxCC service differs from the prior art in significant aspects. Most importantly, long distance telephone charges are avoided entirely if the receiving fax machines 18 are a local telephone call from any FaxEngine 16 site when the facsimile is transferred via the Internet and then by switched telephone network. Furthermore, there are advantageous accounting and error logging and sender informing services to assist the sender.
The Long Distance Delivery service illustrated in FIG. 10 is for those receiving fax machines 18 which are located further than a local switched telephone network call away from all FaxEngines 16. While this circumstance will ideally be rare, it is certainly possible. Therefore, the present invention will compensate by determining the location of the FaxEngine 16 which will be billed the lowest rate for making the long distance call 260 to the receiving fax machine 18. The long distance telephone charge is further reduced by contracting with long distance telephone providers to obtain a lower cost, high volume contract than can be obtained by single parties. This guarantees to the sender that the facsimile will be transmitted at a cost that is always less than if the sender were to transmit the facsimile directly, bypassing the Internet 14.
An optional service which can be provided to subscribers of the present invention is FaxMail as illustrated in FIG. 11. FaxMail is analogous to call forwarding, but a facsimile is transmitted to a new
location instead of a telephone call. The advantages of this service are not only that a facsimile can be forwarded, but the format of the facsimile can be altered. That is it say, the facsimile can be forwarded to another fax machine, to a facsimile modem, and with the present invention, to an electronic mail address by using the Facsimile to Email Gateway feature to be explained. The ability to receive a facsimile in an electronic (paperless) format is an especially great advantage to mobile people and businesses because of the increasing popularity of email over the Internet 14. The necessary elements of the system are then a redirected receiving FaxEngine 262 and then either a redirected receiving fax machine 264 or a redirected receiving email address 266 on the Internet 14.
The Virtual FaxMachine as illustrated in FIG. 12 provides a subscriber with the ability to be accommodating to clients or other people who either lack the resources for making expensive or significant numbers of long distance phone calls, or to just provide another convenience. Specifically, a subscriber "creates" a virtual fax machine 268 which is a local telephone call from an originating fax machine 10. The new fax machine 268 is actually just a local FaxEngine. However, instead of requiring the sender to input a long distance telephone number for the receiving fax machine 18, the FaxEngine 268 has a system for mapping a telephone phone called by an originating fax machine 10 to access the FaxEngine 12. The FaxEngine 268 will then have instructions associated with the telephone by which it was accessed such that it will transmit the facsimile via the Internet 14 to the subscriber' s receiving fax machine 18. This way, the FaxEngine 268 does not require pre-programming with every client's originating fax machine telephone number which might call.
For example, Business in New York wants to allow a number of small clients in Los Angeles to be able to send it facsimiles by dialing a local Los Angeles telephone number. The local Los Angeles FaxEngine 268 can be called by dialing 555-0123. The FaxEngine 268 maps any calls to the number as being directed to Business 's receiving fax machine 18. Thus, when the client's originating fax machine 10 calls the FaxEngine 268, the FaxEngine 268 immediately forwards the facsimile to Business' s receiving fax machine 18 in New York. Advantageously, the client only makes a local telephone call, and Business is not charged for the long distance facsimile transmission.
The Facsimile Broadcast illustrated in FIG. 13 is an optional service which allows the subscriber to send a facsimile to many receiving fax machines simultaneously. This is opposed to the FaxCC service which is limited in its scope of multiple deliveries. Furthermore, each of the receiving facsimile machines' telephone numbers does not have to be entered at the originating fax machine 10. Instead, a list of telephone numbers of receiving fax machines 18 is provided to a service which enters the numbers for the subscriber. This greatly simplifies the process of mass faxing.
The last two services to be described herein are the Email to Facsimile Gateway and the Facsimile to Email Gateway functions of the present invention. The services are rather self explanatory in that the present invention bridges the gap between exclusively facsimile and exclusively email technology. As might be surmised, the Facsimile to Email Gateway is the service which allows FaxMail to receive a facsimile and then forward it as email to a remote location for the receiver as shown in FIG. 14.
This service is provided by enabling the facsimile sender to indicate an email address as the intended destination of the facsimile. There are several methods to implement this function. For example, the sender can send the facsimile from a facsimile modem such that the paperless facsimile can have encoded in it the email address 270 in an easily readable electronic format. Another method usable with FaxMail is to have the receiving FaxEngine preprogrammed with the email address 270 such that any incoming facsimiles are forwarded automatically without the sender having to provide it.
The Email to Facsimile Gateway illustrated in FIG.
15 is essentially the same process. The originating email message 272 provides the ability to specify the Internet address of a receiving FaxEngine 16. The email message also contains within it the telephone number of the receiving fax machine 18. The FaxEngine 16- simply retrieves the receiving fax machine telephone number and the facsimile is transmitted as described before. It is to be understood that the above-described embodiments are only illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention. Numerous modifications and alternative arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The appended claims are intended to cover such modifications and arrangements.