JP3484817B2 - Fax server device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fax server device for relaying fax data in order to send and receive fax data via a high speed data communication line or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Fax communication has become widespread, and fax communication with foreign countries has become popular.

In this case, the fax data is often transmitted and received by connecting the fax terminal devices via a public switched line, but the communication cost is relatively high. On the other hand, there are many cases in which a company or the like establishes a network connecting to overseas by a dedicated communication line, and it is desired to use the network for fax communication.

In some of such networks, an international high-speed digital line is used as a dedicated communication line for connecting to overseas, and the network is economically shared by using the high-speed time division system.

That is, in the time-divisional use, as is well known, a time-division controller (TDM) is placed at both ends of a high-speed digital line, and a group of high-speed digital lines are shared by a plurality of communications at the same time. Control so that communication flows in parallel.

In the time-division control for that purpose, for each of a plurality of communication calls connected to the TDM, each time a data transfer request actually occurs, the use time of the high-speed digital line is allocated to the call and the requested data is transmitted.

[0007] Such time division control is almost transparent for communication with a relatively low speed data terminal or telephone, but when used for fax communication, transmission delay due to control time of the time division control, etc. The number of cases in which communication control between fax terminal devices is hindered has increased with the speeding up of fax communication.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a fax server device for relaying fax communication so as to absorb the above-mentioned troubles caused by transmission delay.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention. The figure shows the configuration of the fax server device, which includes a terminal receiving unit 1, a storage unit 2, a relay transmitting unit 3,
It has a relay receiving unit 4 and a terminal transmitting unit 5.

The terminal receiving unit 1 receives a destination number and fax data signal transmitted from the fax terminal device, stores the received destination number and fax data in the storage unit 2, and notifies the relay transmission unit 3 of the received destination number and fax data. To do.

The relay transmission unit 3 reads out the destination number and the fax data accumulated by the terminal reception unit 1 from the accumulation unit 2, generates transmission data by concatenating the destination number with the fax data, and determines the transmission data from the destination number. The transmission data is transmitted to the relay line of the route connecting to the partner fax server device.

The relay receiving unit 4 stores the data signal received from the relay line in the storage unit 2 and notifies the terminal transmitting unit 5 of the data signal. The terminal transmission unit 5 identifies the destination number and the fax data of the received data stored in the storage unit 2, and transmits the fax data to the fax terminal device determined by the destination number.

[0013]

With the fax server device according to the present invention, the fax data stored in the fax server device is sent / received in the same manner as general data by attaching a destination number to the fax data, and the fax terminal device exchanges data with the fax server device. Fax data can be transmitted and received at a timing suitable for the fax terminal device.

Therefore, in the case of the high-speed digital line using the time division as described above, if the network is constructed such that the fax server device is placed at both ends of the high-speed digital line, the fax terminal devices on both sides of the high-speed digital line are formed. Even when communication is performed between the fax terminals, the fax terminal device can use the high-speed digital line without being directly affected by the high-speed digital line.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a network incorporating a fax server device of the present invention.

The bases 10a and 10b are provided in Japan and abroad, and the bases are connected by the international high-speed digital line 12. In order to efficiently use the high-speed digital line 11 by the time division method as described above. The time division control devices (TDM) 12a and 12b are placed at both ends of the line.

Both bases are each constituted by a local network (LAN), and various terminals 13 as well as the fax server devices 14a and 14b of the present invention are connected to each LAN.
Further, connection devices 15a and 15b are provided to process communication from the LAN to the outside of the LAN, and terminals 13 and fax server devices 14a and 14b of each LAN are connected to the TDM devices via the connection devices 15a and 15b.
By connecting to 12a and 12b, communication with the partner site is performed.

Each of the fax server devices 14a and 14b includes a terminal interface unit 20, a terminal receiving unit 21, and a storage device, respectively.
The relay interface unit 26 includes a relay transmitting unit 23, a relay transmitting unit 23, a relay receiving unit 24, a terminal receiving unit 25, and a relay interface unit 26. The relay interface unit 26 connects to a LAN to perform data transmission / reception via the LAN.

Further, the terminal interface unit 20 is connected to the extension telephone exchanges (PBX) 16a, 16b in the base and is connected to the PBX.
It is connected so that it can communicate with any of the subscribed fax terminals 17a, 17b, etc., and if necessary, has terminals for connecting with fax terminals that subscribe to the public exchange network in their respective areas.

As described below, the terminal receiving unit 21, the storage device 22, the relay transmitting unit 23, the relay receiving unit 24, and the terminal receiving unit 25.
1 corresponds to the terminal receiving unit 1, the storage unit 2, the relay transmitting unit 3, the relay receiving unit 4, and the terminal receiving unit 5 of FIG. 1, respectively.

For example, when the fax terminal device 17a communicates with the foreign fax terminal device 17b, first the fax terminal device 17a dials the telephone number of the fax server device 14a, and the PBX 16a connects to the fax server device 14a. , Next called fax terminal 17
Dial the number b.

After that, fax data is transmitted and received between the fax server device 14a and the fax terminal device 17a in accordance with a normal fax communication protocol.
When a series of fax data has been received by the fax server device 14a, the PBX is disconnected.

The above operation will be described below with reference to the flow of processing shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 together with FIG. In the fax server device 14a, the terminal interface unit 20 has a PBX 16a.
Is detected and a response state is established to establish a connection with the fax terminal 17a (process step 3 in FIG. 4).
0) and thereafter, data is transmitted and received between the terminal receiving unit 21 and the fax terminal device 17a.

That is, the terminal receiving unit 21 is a fax terminal device.
A series of dial signals sent from 17a is received (processing step 31) and stored in the storage device 22 as a destination number (processing step 32). The storage device 22 is composed of a random access memory or a magnetic disk memory having an appropriate storage capacity.

Next, the terminal receiving section 21 receives the start signal for transmitting and receiving the fax data, thereby ending the processing for receiving the dial signal, and transmitting the fax data sent from the fax terminal device 17a according to a predetermined communication protocol. Is received and stored in the storage device 22 (processing step
33, 34, 35).

The terminal receiving unit 21 terminates the reception by detecting the transmission end signal of the fax data from the fax terminal device 17a (processing step 35), activates the relay transmission unit 23, and receives the received destination number and fax data. The relay storage unit 23 of the storage address of (step 3
6).

Upon receiving the notification from the terminal receiving unit 21, the relay transmitting unit 23 identifies the stored destination number (processing step 37), connects the connecting device 15a with the relay interface unit 26, and connects the connection device 15a to the base 10b. Fax server equipment
Connection with 14b is performed (processing step 38).

Next, the fax data and the fax data are sequentially read from the storage area of the storage device 22 notified from the terminal receiving section 21, and a predetermined data format connected to the destination number (for example, FIG. 2).
(See) and transmit (processing steps 39, 40).

In response to a connection request to the connection device 15a, the connection device 15a, the TDM 12a, the international high speed digital line 11,
A logical communication path from the TDM 12b and the connection device 15b to the fax server device 14b connected to the LAN of the site 10b is configured by normal processing.

Therefore, in the processing step 39, the data from the fax server device 14a is transmitted between the fax server devices 14a and 14b by the predetermined data transmission protocol by this communication path, for example, for each data block of a fixed maximum length. Block transmission and fax server equipment 14
The reception response of the reception result from b is alternately performed.

The relay transmission unit 23 of the fax server device 14a
After transmitting the destination number and the fax data notified from the terminal receiving unit 21 as described above, disconnects the connection with the partner fax server device 14b and ends the processing (processing steps 40 and 41).

In the partner fax server device 14b, the relay interface unit is first connected to the connection device 15b via the LAN.
When connected to 26, the relay reception unit 24 is activated (processing step 42 in FIG. 5).

Next, the relay receiving unit 24 sends the data sent from the fax server device 14a through the communication path,
Data blocks are received according to a predetermined data transmission protocol (processing step 43), the destination number and the following fax data are identified by a predetermined data format for the received data, and each is stored in the storage device 22 (processing). Step 44).

When reception of all data is completed (processing step 45), the terminal receiving section 25 is activated to notify the destination number and the storage address of the fax data (processing step 4).
6). The terminal receiving unit 25 first reads out the notified destination number to identify the connection destination (processing step 47), calls the PBX 16b accordingly, connects to the fax terminal device 17b with the destination number, and executes the predetermined fax. Confirm the connection with the required destination according to the communication protocol (processing step 48).

The terminal receiving unit 25 for confirming the connection is a storage device.
The fax data is read from 22 and sequentially transmitted to the fax terminal device 17b (process steps 49 and 50). Upon completion of sending the fax data (processing step 50),
The processing is ended by disconnecting the connection with the fax terminal device 17b (processing step 51).

In the above description, the occurrence of various abnormal states such as erroneous connection, destination error, communication abnormality, etc. and various abnormal processings corresponding thereto are omitted. In the above description, the fax terminal device connecting the source and destination to the PBX has been described. However, in the case where either or both of the originator and the destination are fax terminal devices that join the public switched network, the fax server device 14a.
It is obvious that the control is performed in the same manner as described above except that each of b and b performs communication with the fax terminal device through the necessary connection terminals with the public switched network.

[0037]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a fax terminal device is adversely affected by a high-speed digital line in a network that uses a time-division high-speed digital line for fax communication. Since a high speed digital line can be used for stable fax communication, there is a remarkable industrial effect of improving the economical efficiency of fax communication.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a transmission data format.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the process of the present invention (No. 1)

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the process of the present invention (part 2)

[Explanation of symbols]

1,21 Terminal receiver 2 storage 3, 23 Relay transmitter 4, 24 Relay receiver 5, 25 Terminal transmitter 10a, 10b bases 11 International high-speed digital line 12a, 12b TDM 13 terminals 14a, 14b Fax server device 15a, 15b connection device 16a, 16b PBX 17a, 17b Fax terminal equipment 20 Terminal interface section 22 storage 26 Relay interface section 30-51 processing steps

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A storage unit for storing a data signal, a destination number and a fax data signal transmitted from a fax terminal device are received via a switching network , and the received destination number and fax data are stored. And a destination number and fax data stored by the terminal receiving unit are read from the storage unit, transmission data in which the destination number is connected to the fax data is generated, and the destination number is calculated from the destination number. Hours and minutes of the route to connect to the designated fax server device
A relay control section for transmitting the transmission data to the relay line for split control method , a relay receiving section for accumulating the data signal received from the relay line for time division control method in the storage section, and the relay receiving section for receiving from the relay line After the storage processing of the data signal is completed in the storage unit, the relay reception unit identifies the destination number and the fax data of the reception data stored in the storage unit of the data signal, and identifies the fax data as the destination number. Switch network to the fax terminal determined by
Fax server apparatus characterized by being configured as a terminal transmitting section that transmits through, by. Wherein said relay transmission unit, after the terminal receiving portion is the destination number and fax data ends the storage process to the storage unit, according to claim 1, wherein performing the process of transmitting the transmission data fax server apparatus according to.