KR100670975B1 - Facsimile system - Google Patents

Abstract

A facsimile system is provided to connect a plurality of facsimile numbers with a single binding ID to facilitate the management of the reception of facsimile data. A facsimile system includes a communication unit(103) performing routing for connecting the facsimile system to PSTN(Public Switched Telephone Network) and Internet, an engine unit(101) for transmitting/receiving a facsimile message, controlling notification of the message, and controlling the storage, management, search and back-up of the facsimile message, and a facsimile receiving notification unit(109) for notifying a transmitting side and a receiving side of the receiving state of the message through a predetermined message transmitter under the control of the engine unit. The facsimile system further includes a data management unit(113) for storing and managing the facsimile message under the control of the engine unit, an engine state monitoring unit(111) for monitoring network obstruction or communication state of the engine unit, and a web server(105) having a user interface(107) for processing the transmission, storage and management of the facsimile message for the terminal of a corresponding unit.

Description

Fax system {FACSIMILE SYSTEM}

1 is a block diagram showing a conventional fax machine.

2 is a block diagram showing a fax system according to the present invention.

3A is a flowchart for explaining processing of a received fax.

3B is a flowchart illustrating a process of transmitting a fax.

<Explanation of symbols for main drawings>

101: engine unit 103: communication unit

105: web server 107: user interface

109: fax receiving notification unit 111: engine status monitoring unit

113: data management unit 115: user terminal

The present invention relates to a fax system, and more particularly, to manage multiple fax numbers with one binding ID, and to store, manage, retrieve, and backup fax information received at each fax number. A fax (FAX) system capable of automatically replying a predetermined message to a sender and a receiver.

In general, a user may receive a fax message through a PSTN network or an Internet network. Fax machines with a built-in Network Card allow users to receive e-mail messages directly from their fax machine to their e-mail address. In addition, a fax function for receiving a general fax message through a line interface unit through a general PSTN network is supported. When a public fax message receives and prints an e-mail message in a public fax standby state, the recipient goes to the public fax machine and checks whether a fax message has been received.

The fax machine receiving the fax message outputs the fax reception through the line interface unit, and the fax machine receiving the e-mail message outputs the reception through the network card.

In recent years, the concept of a fax server has been introduced to facilitate management of fax reception. For example, the fax machine disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-0065,410, as shown in FIG. 1, the fax machine 100 receives a fax message 102 through a general PSTN network to receive a line interface unit 104. After processing in the output to the fax reception (106). In addition, since the network card 114 is embedded, it is designed to directly receive emails 112 that can be transmitted / received on the current Internet protocol. That is, the fax machine 100 may store and output the messages received on the PSTN / Internet protocols pop3, STMP .... (106, 126). In particular, when the e-mail message 112 is received, the fax machine 100 may function to transmit a notification e-mail 122 informing the individual user that the fax is received and output 126.

However, the conventional fax information can have only one fax number in one fax machine, and thus, since the fax machines installed separately for each department were operated independently, the company-level systematic management was not possible. However, in the case of companies such as insurance, finance and services, where fax is used as a means of information exchange, a systematic central management of fax information is required at the company level.

An object of the present invention is to provide a fax system that is easy to manage reception of fax data by connecting a plurality of fax numbers to one binding ID.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a fax system capable of adding a database of fax information received throughout the company and storing, retrieving, and backing up the fax information to add stability and functionality to the fax information.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a fax system capable of notifying a fax reception status by a messenger, a short message, or the like by using a fax alert client program when receiving fax information.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a fax system, comprising: a communication unit configured to perform routing for connecting a telephone network (PSTN) and the Internet; An engine unit for transmitting and receiving a fax message in association with a plurality of fax numbers, controlling message notification based on receiving a fax message, and controlling storage management, retrieval, and backup of the fax message; A fax reception notification unit for notifying a sender and a receiver of a reception state of a corresponding message through a predetermined message transmission unit based on the message notification control of the engine unit; A data manager configured to store and manage the fax message based on the control of the engine unit; An engine state monitoring unit detecting a network failure or a communication state of the engine unit and notifying the engine unit at a predetermined time unit; And a web server including a user interface for processing transmission, storage, and management of the fax message for each corresponding user terminal based on authentication of a plurality of user terminals.

In particular, the engine unit simultaneously binds and transmits a fax transmission dedicated port and a reception dedicated port to execute transmission and reception in one engine, and a plurality of fax numbers are linked to one ID.

In addition, the fax system is characterized in that the source code (Source Code) is implemented to be compiled in an environment such as UNIX, Linux, MS Windows.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram showing a fax system according to the present invention.

The present invention starts with generating one ID that can bind the fax of the entire company in the engine unit 101. The engine unit 101 connects the generated binding ID and the fax number currently used separately for each department. As such, connecting multiple fax numbers to a single binding ID is based on the Xroshot service provided by a backbone telecommunications company for mass message transmission through multiple fax lines. Before the Xroshot service was available, it was impossible to think of centralized management of faxes because it was not possible to mass deliver messages. When the connection between the binding ID and each fax number is completed, the binding ID is registered in the communication unit 103 serving as a routing role.

When the sender sends the fax data by designating the fax number, the communication unit 103 determines whether the pass number is a fax number included in the registered binding ID. If the fax number of the binding ID is confirmed, the fax data is transmitted to the engine unit.

On the other hand, the engine unit 101 binds to a fax transmission port and a reception-only port at the same time to perform transmission and reception integrally, and can link several thousand or more fax numbers with respect to one ID. The received fax message is temporarily stored in the memory of the engine and then transmitted to the data management unit 113 for data management. The sender and the receiver receive the received status of the corresponding message through a predetermined message transmission means based on the message notification control of the engine. Notify the side. In this way, all the received and sent fax numbers are integrated in the engine unit to facilitate large-scale fax management, as well as to solve the problem of BUSY and over-capacity that may occur in conventional devices.

Conventionally, because one fax number is used for one fax machine and the sent fax message is sent directly to the fax machine instead of being stored in another place, it is busy when another document is transmitted while receiving one document. Was unable to receive the document. However, the present invention enables mass transmission via Xroshot, which provides a plurality of fax lines. Therefore, in the present invention, even if another fax message is transmitted to the fax number while the fax message is transmitted to the specific fax number, the problem of busyness does not occur because the fax message can be transmitted using an unused line. . In addition, in case of transmitting a large amount of information, sometimes it is impossible to send a fax due to exceeding the capacity of the fax memory, which is also managed by the engine unit, so it does not matter unless it is limited by the capacity of the Internet line.

Since the data management unit 113 enables access to the DBMS using ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity), it is possible to interoperate with any DBMS supporting ODBC such as MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, and the like. The data manager stores the reception information and the transmission information of the transmitted data.

Received information includes recipient information, sender information, received time, message size and received image fax information. Optionally, the subject and content of the fax message can be stored in a database. Although fax messages are generally difficult to database as image data, they can be converted into text data and then stored as text data using image-text conversion programs widely distributed in the market. In general, the received fax message can be easily searched by using the finder if the sender and the reception time can be known.However, when searching according to the contents of the fax, the desired information can be easily stored and retrieved using the above program. have.

Next, the sender information includes the sender information, the receiver information, the sender time, the subject of the message, the size of the message, and the overall message information.

The notification of the fax reception status is provided to the sender and the receiver through notification means such as popup, messenger, short message, SMS, or voice mail. It may be provided as a compound message or a multimedia message. For example, a short message (SMS) and a voice message may be provided simultaneously.

In addition, the fax system according to the present invention implements source code to be compiled in all environments such as UNIX, Linux, MS Windows, and the like, thereby inducing the normal operation of the system regardless of the OS.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 3A is a flowchart for explaining processing of a received fax.

The fax system according to the invention is based on a Unix, Linux or MS Windows environment. It also has a database management system (DBMS) that supports ODBC such as MySQL, Oracle, and MS SQL Server. After such a system environment is established, the engine unit 101 connects to the communication unit 103 to communicate a message (S301).

The message communication is performed according to the TCP / IP protocol and includes a message on the communication status of a telephone network (PSTN) or the Internet. Thereafter, the engine unit 101 connects to the communication unit 103 and collects state information on the message (S303). The status information of the message is a promised message that can determine whether a message to be received exists.

When the engine unit 101 is notified that the message to be received from the communication unit 103 is a fax number included in the binding ID (S305), the fax system of the present invention does not generate any more errors than the conventional fax machine. The engine unit 101 immediately notifies the reception result of the fax message to the fax reception notifying unit 109 (S307). In response to the notification from the engine unit 101, the fax reception notifying unit 109 searches for a fax number mapped to a currently received fax message and displays a popup window or a short message (SMS) or messenger. The sender and the receiver are notified of the reception result by using, for example (S309).

After transmitting the reception result by the facsimile reception notification unit 109 to the concerned person, relevant data is extracted and stored in order to be stored in the database (S313). The extracted data may include recipient information, sender information, occasional time, message size, image data, and the like, and optionally, contents of a fax message.

3B is a flowchart for explaining the processing procedure in the case of sending a fax. The engine unit 101 continuously checks all the fax numbers included in its ID in order to find out whether a message to be transmitted exists (S321). When a message to be transmitted is detected, the transmission message is stored for data management (S323) and then transmitted via the communication unit 103. The extracted data information includes at least sender information, recipient information, origination time, and message subject. Optionally, message size and full message information may be included.

Although not described in the process of transmitting and receiving the message, in order to notify the state of the engine unit 101 at a predetermined cycle, the engine state monitoring unit 111 is preferably started at several seconds (for example, three seconds). The engine state monitoring unit 111 notifies the administrator of an abnormal state including a network failure or a system failure. Therefore, when a system failure occurs in receiving a message or transmitting a message, the administrator is notified of a message about the system failure in real time.

The present invention is capable of controlling the reception and transmission of all the fax numbers belonging to one binding ID, and thus, the storage, management, retrieval, and backup of all the transmitted and received fax information can maximize the efficiency of the system. have.

In addition, the received fax information can be output without errors and busy (BUSY).

Claims (8)

In the fax system that can manage and operate the fax information, A communication unit configured to perform routing for connecting a telephone network (PSTN) and the Internet; An engine unit for transmitting and receiving a fax message in association with a plurality of fax numbers, controlling message notification based on reception of a fax message, and controlling storage, management, retrieval, and backup of the fax message; A fax reception notification unit for notifying a sender and a receiver of a reception state of a corresponding message through a predetermined message transmission unit based on the message notification control of the engine unit; A data manager configured to store and manage the fax message based on the control of the engine unit; An engine state monitoring unit detecting a network failure or a communication state of the engine unit and notifying the engine unit at a predetermined time unit; And A web server including a user interface for processing transmission, storage, and management of the fax message for each corresponding user terminal based on authentication of a plurality of user terminals; Fax system, characterized in that consisting of. The fax system according to claim 1, wherein the engine unit binds and transmits a fax transmission port and a reception port at the same time and performs transmission and reception integrally, and a plurality of fax numbers are linked to one ID. The fax system of claim 1, wherein the data management unit enables access to a DBMS using ODBC, and thus can be linked with any DBMS supporting ODBC such as MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, and the like. The fax system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the message transmitting means comprises notification means such as a messenger, a short message, a voice message and an e-mail. The fax system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the notifying means is provided in at least two compound messages or multimedia messages. 4. The fax system of claim 3, wherein the fax message stored in the data manager includes recipient information, sender information, reception time, size of the message, and original data when the received data is received data. 7. The fax system of claim 6, wherein the fax message stored in the data manager further includes a message content. The fax system according to claim 3, wherein the fax message stored in the data management unit includes caller information, receiver information, call time, and message subject in the case of an outgoing message.

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