JP2586846B2 - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus having a LAN (Local Area Network) interface and transmitting a document by storing the document in a memory.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in such a facsimile apparatus, when a transmission document is transferred to another apparatus and transmitted by proxy, the usage of an image memory for storing image data of the transmission document is smaller than a predetermined value. When this happens, the data is transferred to another device. Such a method is described in, for example, JP-A-4-38066.

[0003]

In the conventional apparatus, even if there is no document waiting to be transmitted at the substitute facsimile and there is no load, the substitute transmission is performed until the image memory usage reaches a predetermined amount. Is not executed, and the load is not always evenly distributed.

According to the present invention, the load of transmission processing is evenly distributed to a plurality of facsimile machines as much as possible.
It is an object to use a facsimile machine more efficiently.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a facsimile apparatus capable of communicating with another facsimile apparatus via a LAN interface, comprising: an image memory for storing image data; Means for monitoring the use amount of the image memory, means for inquiring and receiving the use state of the image memory of the other facsimile apparatus, and transmitting the use state of the image memory of the own facsimile apparatus to the other facsimile in response to the request of the other facsimile apparatus. Means for comparing the use states of the image memories of the other facsimile apparatus and the own facsimile apparatus to determine whether or not a predetermined transmission proxy condition is satisfied; and the other facsimile apparatus for which the transmission proxy is determined by the determination means. Of the document waiting for transmission stored in the image memory to the device. Means for transferring data, if the proxy transmission document has been transferred was set to provide a means for registering the document came which is the transfer as transmission document.

[0006]

The use state of the image memory of the other facsimile apparatus connected to the LAN is compared, and if the image memory of the other facsimile apparatus satisfies the transmission proxy condition (for example, the memory usage is small), the other facsimile apparatus is used. The transmission document is transferred to the image memory of the device, and the transmission is performed by proxy. As a result, the loads on the plurality of facsimile apparatuses are equalized, and the use efficiency is improved.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention. Two facsimile machines FAX1 and FAX2 are connected to a point-to-point connection type or a bus connection type L.
They are connected by an AN. Facsimile machine FA
Both X1 and FAX2 have the configuration shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, a control unit 1 comprises a CPU, a memory in which a program is stored, and a work memory required for the operation of the program. ~ 16 functions are realized. That is, the image memory use state monitoring means 1
1. Image memory use information inquiring means 12 for inquiring the image memory to the facsimile device of the transmission agent at a fixed time interval, the state of the image memory of the own facsimile device, and whether or not to transfer the waiting document to the facsimile device of the transmission agent Means 13 for transferring a document waiting to be transmitted, means 14 for transferring one of the documents waiting to be transmitted to a facsimile apparatus as a proxy transmission destination, use of an image memory for returning a response to an image memory use state inquiry from another facsimile apparatus. An information return unit 15 and a transmission registration unit 16 for a received transfer document that registers the received transfer document as a transmission document of the own apparatus.

The timer circuit 2 notifies the control section 1 that a certain time has elapsed. The management information memory 3 uses a non-volatile RAM, and includes a device management information storage unit 31 and a document management information storage unit 32 that store the usage state of the image memory and the like. The document management information section 32 includes the type of the document in which the image data compressed and encoded in the image memory 4 is stored, the transmission destination of the transmitted document, the number of pages, the storage position information of the image data in the image memory, the image memory Information for each document such as the above image data amount and log information (recording of transmission / reception) such as the result of communication and transmission of a transmission document are stored.

The image memory 4 is a memory in which writing and reading are performed in blocks of a fixed size, in which the amount of compression-encoded image data is stored, and the image size, resolution, image data amount, etc. of each page are stored. Is also stored together. The image memory use state monitoring unit 11 stores the total number of blocks and the number of blocks in use in the image memory in the device management information storage unit 31 and newly writes the number of blocks in use when writing image data. Stores the value obtained by adding the number of blocks, stores the value obtained by subtracting the number of unused blocks as the number of used blocks when erasing image data, and uses the image memory from the counter value of the total number of blocks and the number of used blocks. The amount (ratio) is calculated and stored in the device management information section 31. The memory usage is generally represented by a ratio of the used memory amount to the total memory amount, but may be represented by an absolute amount instead of the ratio.

The operation unit 5 is composed of an input device and a display device, and inputs values indicating operation conditions of the apparatus, such as an ID of a facsimile apparatus to which transmission is to be performed and an inquiry interval of an image memory use state, and stores apparatus management information in advance. It is used when storing in the unit 31, when inputting a transmission destination when transmitting a document, a transmission mode, and the like, and when displaying log information.

The communication unit 6 includes a communication coding circuit, a communication modem,
It transmits and receives a document composed of a network control circuit and the like and composed of image data and attribute information. The transmitted original is read by the scanner unit 7 and the image data compressed and encoded is transferred to the image memory 4, and the image data of the received document is read from the image memory 4 and transferred to the printer unit 8 to be decoded and printed. Is output. The LAN interface 9 transmits and receives commands containing various information to and from other facsimile machines on the LAN according to the protocol of the LAN.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the outline of processing for transferring a document waiting to be transmitted from FAX1 to FAX2. FIG. 3 shows the processing flow of FAX1, and FIG.
9 shows a processing flow of X2. Hereinafter, the operation of the embodiment will be described with reference to these flowcharts.

In the facsimile machine 1, the image memory use information inquiry means 12 sets the value of the image memory use amount inquiry time interval stored in the device management information storage unit 31 in advance in the timer circuit 2, and the time out from the timer circuit 2 Upon detecting that the occurrence signal has been notified (S1), the current image memory usage is read from the device management information storage unit 31 to check whether the value is 0 (S2). If it is not 0, the process proceeds to the next process. Next, the number of documents waiting to be transmitted is read from the document management information storage unit 32 to check whether it is 0 (S3). If 0, the process is immediately terminated. FAX2 stored
To the image memory use information request command via the LAN interface 9 (S4).

In the FAX 2, an image memory use information request command is received by the LAN interface 9 (FIG. 4,
S10) The image memory use state reply means 15 returns F
The current image memory usage amount is also notified from the device management information section 31 of the AX 2 to the FAX 1 that has issued the request via the LAN interface 9 (S11).

The FAX 1 receives the image memory usage information from the FAX 2 via the LAN interface 9 (S 5 in FIG. 3), and the transmission waiting document transfer determining means 13 uses the FAX 1 image memory usage and the FAX 2 image memory usage. (S6).

As a result, if the image usage of the FAX 2 is smaller, the document waiting for transmission
The image data of the document waiting for transmission registered at AX1 and the document attribute information including the transmission destination are read out from the image memory 4 and the document management information storage unit 32, respectively, and the F
Transfer to the AX2 by the LAN interface 9 (S
7).

In the facsimile apparatus 2, the transferred image data and document attributes are stored in the image memory 4 and the document management information storage unit 32 by the transmission / registration unit 16 for the received and transferred document.
(S12 in FIG. 4), and when the writing is completed, a transmission registration completion notification is sent to the FAX 1 via the LAN interface 9 (S13).

When the FAX 1 receives the transmission registration completion notification of the transfer document (S 8 in FIG. 3), it deletes the image data of the transfer waiting document which has been transferred and stores the image data in the log information area in the document management information storage unit 32 to the FAX 2. Add the transfer result of (S
9).

As described above, the document waiting to be transmitted is transferred so that the image memory usage of the FAX 1 and the image memory usage of the FAX 2 become as equal as possible.

In the above embodiment, as the transfer proxy condition, the memory usage of FAX1 and FAX2 is determined simply by comparison, but other conditions may be added. For example, taking into account the total memory capacity, the capacity of the memory dedicated to transmission or transmission, the frequency of transmission / transmission, the ratio of transmission volume / transmission volume, and the like, the image memory is weighted according to each fax machine. You may make it compare.

In the above-described embodiment, the document is transferred at regular time intervals measured by the timer circuit 2.
The transfer timing is not limited to this. For example, when a document is transmitted, transfer proxy conditions may be determined and the document may be transferred.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the number of facsimile machines to which the image data is transferred is two. Can be dealt with by using the means as a proxy transmission destination.

[0024]

According to the present invention, the facsimile apparatuses are connected to each other by a LAN interface, and the facsimile apparatus can automatically and uniformly distribute the load without biasing the load to a specific apparatus. It is possible to prevent the image memory from being full as much as possible without the need to perform the operation, and to use a plurality of facsimile machines efficiently. In particular, this is more effective in the case where one facsimile apparatus is first introduced, and thereafter the transmission amount increases and a second facsimile apparatus is added.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of connection of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention to a LAN.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of FAX1.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of FAX2.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 control unit 11 image memory usage monitoring means 12 image memory usage information inquiry means 13 transmission waiting document transfer determination means 14 transmission waiting document transfer means 15 image memory usage information reply means 16 reception transfer document transmission registration means 2 timer circuit 3 management Information memory 31 Device management information storage unit 32 Document management information storage unit 4 Image memory 5 Operation unit 6 Communication unit 7 Scanner unit 8 Printer unit 9 LAN interface

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus capable of communicating with another facsimile apparatus via a LAN interface, an image memory for storing image data, means for monitoring the use amount of the image memory, and another facsimile apparatus. Means for inquiring and receiving the use state of the image memory of the first facsimile apparatus, means for transmitting the use state of the image memory of the own facsimile apparatus to another facsimile in response to a request of the other facsimile apparatus, and use of the image memory of the other facsimile apparatus and the own facsimile apparatus A determination unit that compares the states and determines whether a predetermined transmission proxy condition is satisfied; and a transmission waiting document stored in the image memory for the other facsimile apparatus whose transmission proxy is determined by the determination unit. Means for transferring image data and proxy transmission document has been transferred A means for registering the transferred document as a transmission document in such a case. 2. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination by said determination means is performed at regular intervals.