JP4318672B2 - Communication device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a data communication technique, and in particular, a technique for generating a message including a sub-address, and suitable for efficiently transferring this message from a transmission source apparatus to a destination server or a transmission destination apparatus via a network. The present invention relates to a message forming technique including a technical subaddress.

  Facsimile devices have been developed as important communication technologies for communication technologies such as computers and radio frequency (RF). However, a facsimile machine uses paper as a medium, and how to incorporate such a facsimile machine based on the use of the paper medium into a modern communication network system and use it integrally is a problem. It becomes.

  For example, with the development of the technical field related to the facsimile apparatus, at present, a digital message can be transmitted from the facsimile apparatus to a specific destination apparatus via the network using an optional function. However, when this optional function is used, an operator (user) has to input a long code into the facsimile apparatus, and the operability becomes a problem.

  That is, the basic function of the facsimile apparatus is to scan a graphic (pictogram) document and convert it into a digital signal, and send the digital signal to a receiving facsimile apparatus installed near or far away. The receiving facsimile apparatus restores the received digital signal in a form close to the original graphic original. At this time, the transmission side facsimile apparatus transfers the information (facsimile information) converted from the hard copy material into an analog signal to the destination facsimile apparatus (reception side facsimile apparatus) via the analog telephone line.

  Conventionally, communication has been performed in a state in which the transmission side facsimile apparatus and the reception side facsimile apparatus are directly connected via a telephone line. That is, from the sending facsimile machine, dialing the telephone number of the receiving facsimile machine to make a call, and by capturing the line on the receiving facsimile machine side, the mutual connection is established, and between the two, After exchanging information called “handshake” and confirming whether communication is possible, facsimile information is sent from the transmission side to the reception side. Information exchanged by this handshake process is called TSI (Terminal Station Identifier), and includes information for notifying the receiving facsimile apparatus of identification information of the transmitting facsimile apparatus.

  Such communication technology between facsimile machines has the following problems. First, the users of both the transmission side facsimile apparatus and the reception side facsimile apparatus must perform an interconnection operation manually. In addition, the telephone line is occupied for connection with the receiving facsimile machine. Such occupation of the telephone line and manual connection operation are clearly undesirable when the facsimile apparatus is used in a modern communication network.

  In order to cope with such a problem, a communication technique using a shared resource of a network and a technique for improving user operability related to communication and connection between apparatuses are necessary. Therefore, a new data network architecture has been developed to meet such demands by connecting facsimile apparatuses via a server.

  With this technology, a plurality of destination facsimile machines can specify and share a small number of telephone lines, and the transmission side can be shared via a general switched telephone network (PSTN) using a general analog line. The facsimile apparatus is connected to a receiving server. In this case, the user first dials the telephone number of the receiving server (destination server). By this dialing operation, the transmission side facsimile apparatus transmits facsimile information to the destination server in the form of a digital signal, and the destination server receives the reception side facsimile apparatus, a computer having a facsimile function, or image information reception processing. Is transferred to a network device such as a data communication network.

  However, in this technique, the server (destination server) uses transfer destination address information (routing address) specific to each device in order to appropriately transfer the image information to the corresponding receiving device (destination device). It is necessary to memorize in advance. Therefore, in recent years, a server that can acquire the destination of a destination apparatus by extracting forwarding address information (routing address) from received facsimile information using software has been developed.

  As described above, with the advancement of technology related to facsimile machines, facsimile communication protocols, and servers, a subaddress for specifying a transmission destination apparatus can be used by including it in a part of facsimile information created by a transmission side facsimile apparatus. It is possible. One example thereof is the technique described in Patent Document 1, for example, in which a technique for including a sub-address in a TSI (Transmit Station Identifier) field of facsimile information is disclosed.

  However, in this prior art, the sub-address is manually set by the user of the facsimile machine on the transmission side, like other information. Therefore, the user needs to input long code information as a subaddress, which is a burden. Furthermore, such long code information for the sub-address is difficult for the user to remember and cannot be displayed in a list on a display unit of a small facsimile apparatus.

  In particular, in order to distinguish the subaddress from other fields of the facsimile information, the user can use a destination telephone number, a 5-digit subaddress code, and a series of specific control characters such as “#” and “*”. The string must be entered at the appropriate location in the code information. As described above, in this technique, the problem is that the user has to remember the long character string forming the code information and exactly where the control character is inserted in the code information. is there.

  Further, in this technique, when the display capability of the display unit (display panel) of the facsimile apparatus is shorter than the length of the code information, a part of the code information is scrolled out and is not displayed, and the user can enter all characters previously input. The remaining code information cannot be entered while referring to the column.

  As a technology related to such a thing, there is “NetWare” (version 4.l) described in Non-Patent Document 1. This "NetWare" (version 4.l) is a software product installed on the destination server. If the received facsimile information is in the format of "NEST autoroute code", the server on which this software is installed will Information is handled as information to be transferred to a destination device.

  In this technique, it is necessary to create code information by combining character strings at the transmission source device, similar to that described in Patent Document 1. This code information includes a subaddress and a destination telephone number and a specific character for separating the subaddress, and the server (destination server) specified by the destination telephone number specifies the subaddress as the destination telephone number. Convert to an “identification number” unique to the device.

  This “identification number” is not a so-called universal address such as an IP (Internet Protocol) address or an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) address. In addition, a facsimile machine conforming to CCITT G3 (Consulting Committee of International Telegraph and Telephone Group 3) is compatible with “NetWare” (version 4.l). There is a problem of having to remember code information.

  Novell's software “NetWare” further includes “polling” technology for remotely accessing files in the destination device from the source device. However, this polling technology does not present a technology for easily incorporating a polling function into a remote facsimile apparatus.

US Application Patent No. 5,2O6,743. Novell, “NetWare (version 4.l) (NEST Autoroute Code Definition l995 Novell, Inc., part number l06-000644-00l).

  Problems to be solved are that the conventional technique cannot efficiently perform the sub-address input operation, and cannot effectively use the sub-address and the polling technique.

  An object of the present invention is to solve these problems of the prior art and to reduce the user load associated with the sub-address input operation and to improve the communication efficiency of digital messages using the sub-address.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, in the transmission source device (source terminal), the user is prompted to specify whether to use a subaddress for digital message transfer (yes) or not (no). Further, it prompts for the input of the subaddress of the destination device and the telephone number of the destination server. Based on the input data of the subaddress of the user that is interactively performed in this way, the transmission source device generates a digital message including the subaddress of the transmission destination device. The digital message generated in this way is transmitted via a communication channel to a destination server specified by a telephone number designated by the user, and the destination server converts the subaddress into an IP address or the like, thereby The transmitted digital message is transferred to the corresponding destination device via the Internet or the like. Further, in the transmission source device, the user is also prompted to input information for extracting a specific data file from the transmission destination device in the same way regarding the polling message.

  According to the present invention, the sub-address input operation can be efficiently performed, the sub-address can be effectively used, and the polling technique can be effectively used. The user load associated with the sub-address input operation is reduced, and the sub-address is used. It is possible to improve the communication efficiency of digital messages.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the configuration of a communication network relating to a digital message forming system including a subaddress of the present invention. The system of this example is a digital communication system that performs everything from the generation to the transfer of facsimile information as a digital message. The facsimile information from a transmission source device (described as “SourceTerminal” in the figure) 10 is transmitted and received as a facsimile information. To a destination device (denoted as “Destination Terminal” or “Terminal” in the figure) 50 to 53 such as a personal computer (personal computer) having a computer. As the transmission source apparatus 10, a facsimile apparatus is suitable, but a personal computer capable of facsimile communication may be used.

  The transmission source device 10 is connected to a general exchange telephone network (denoted as “PSTN” in the figure) 20 by an analog line 21. The general exchange telephone network 20 is provided with an analog switch (described as “Analog Switch” in the drawing) 23 for controlling connection between the analog line 21 and the analog line 22.

  The destination server (described as “Destination Server” in the figure) 30 is a workstation or a high-speed personal computer equipped with network management software such as “NetWare” (version 4.l). It has the function described in “NEST Autoroute Code Definition, l995 Novell Inc., part number 106-000644-001”, and is connected to the general exchange telephone network 20 via the analog line 22. On the destination side (reception side), the destination server 30 is described via a node 31 as a data communication network (LAN in the figure, “Network”) such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or a WAN (Wide Area Network). ) 40.

  The data communication network 40 includes, for example, an Ethernet (registered trademark) backbone LAN standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3, a FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) network, a wireless network, Consists of the Internet etc. The software ("Netware") used in the data communication network 40 and the destination server 30 supports the CCITT Group 3 T.30 facsimile communication protocol and the subaddress specification of the G3 facsimile communication protocol. it can.

  Furthermore, the data communication network 40 is connected to each transmission of a personal computer, a printer, a facsimile machine, a router, an exchange, an access point to another communication network, an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) device, etc. via the nodes 32 to 35. The destination devices 50 to 53 are connected. Hereinafter, the details of the transmission source device 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the transmission source device in FIG. In the transmission source apparatus 10 of this example, various components such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 205, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 295, and a ROM (Read Only Memory) 290 are connected via a system bus 270. .

  The CPU 205 performs computer processing by the storage program method using the ROM 290 and the RAM 295, and controls the entire operation of the transmission source device 10 including management control of the system bus 270. The ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) 285 performs a specific data processing operation, and is configured by other data processing units such as FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arreys) and PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices).

  The disk control unit (described as “DISK Controller” in the figure) 255 includes a built-in flexible disk drive (described as “FD” in the figure) 260 and a hard disk drive (described as “HDD” in the figure) 265. Control. The input / output control unit (described as “I / O Controller” in the figure) 225 includes an external hard disk drive (described as “HDD” in the figure) 230 and a printer (described as “PRINTER” in the figure) 242. Control.

  Text or data files from the transmission source device 10 are printed by either the external printer 242 or the built-in printer (described as “Internal Printer” in the drawing) 245.

  Further, the transmission source device 10 includes an internal scanner (indicated as “Internal Scanner” in the figure) 284 and an optional external scanner (indicated in the figure by an input control unit (indicated as “INPUT CONTROLLER” in the figure) 280). Middle, described as “SCANNER” 283, keyboard (denoted as “Keyboard” in the figure) 282, mouse (denoted as “MOUSE” in the figure) 281 and built-in keypad (in the figure, “KeyPad”) Description) Control each of 275.

  Under such control of the input control unit 280, the built-in scanner 284 or the external scanner 283 reads image information from a document and converts the image information into digital data. Then, the input control unit 280 sends the digital data to the system bus 270 for the next processing. The input control unit 280 also receives input information from a keypad 275 as a basic data input device of the transmission source device 10 and a keyboard 282 and a mouse 281 as expansion data input devices.

  A display control unit (described as “DISPLAY CONTROLLER” in the figure) 210 includes an external CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display device (described as “CRT” in the figure) 215 and a built-in LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) display device. (In the figure, described as “LCD DISPLAY”) Either or both of 220 are controlled. As the display devices 215 and 220, other display devices such as a plasma display and active and passive LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) may be used. The CRT display device 215 and the LCD display device 220, along with the keypad 275, the keyboard 282, and the mouse 281, provide interactive operations with the user.

  The system bus 270 is connected to an external network (denoted as “NETWORK” in the figure) 240 and a general switched telephone network (denoted as “PSTN Connect” in the figure) by a communication control device (denoted as “COMM CONTROLLER” in the figure) 250. Description) The connection to the network 240 corresponds to the connection interface of the transmission source device 10. The connection to the general exchange telephone network 241 is RJ-11 connection, but the transmission source device 10 is connected to ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), B-ISDN (Broadband ISDN), or wireless access provider. If possible, they may be used.

  FIG. 3 is a front view showing a configuration example of the LCD display device and keypad of the transmission source device in FIG. The keypad 275 is provided with numeric keys “0” to “9”, control keys “*” and “#”, a start key 276 and a stop key 277. The result of data input by the user on the keypad 275 is displayed on the LCD display device 220, and the user can confirm the input contents each time.

  Further, the LCD display device 220 displays a message generated by the transmission source device 10, for example, text information that prompts the user to input predetermined information when necessary. On the screen of the LCD display device 220 in FIG. 3, if the user transfers a message to the terminal, the user presses the number key “1”, otherwise presses “0”. A message prompting you to do so is displayed. In this way, a prompt message is displayed on the screen of the LCD display device 220 according to the situation at that time.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a first processing operation example according to the present invention of the transmission source device in FIG. In FIG. 4, the user creates a message (digital routing message) to be transferred to the destination device 50 via the general switched telephone network 20 and the destination server 30 in FIG. 1 using the keypad 275 in FIG. The case is shown as an example.

  First, the process starts when the user presses the start key 276 on the keypad 275 of FIG. 3 (step 410). When the process is started, the source device 10 displays a message prompting the user to select whether to enter a four-digit subaddress (or an alphanumeric string of various lengths), and The user is instructed to select “Yes (input sub address)” or “No (do not input sub address)” (step 420). In the figure, “PROMPT USER IF SUBADDRESS IS TO BE INPUT” is described. The display state at this time is the guidance information 221 on the LCD display device 220 in FIG.

  A response from the user is received (step 430) (described as “RECEIVE RESPONSE” in the figure), and it is determined whether or not the response is a sub-address input selection (step 440) (“IS RESPONSE AFFIRMATIVE” in the figure). ? "). If the response indicates that the subaddress is not input, the user is prompted to input the telephone number of the destination server (step 460) (described as “INPUT TELEPHONE NUMBER” in the figure). If the response is to input a subaddress, the user is prompted to input a subaddress previously assigned to the destination terminal 50 (step 450) (described as “PROMPT USER TO INPUT SUBADDRESS” in the figure) The 4-digit subaddress input by the user is temporarily stored (step 451) (described as “RECEIVE RESPONSE” in the figure).

  During the processing in step 451, the transmission source device 10 automatically recognizes the completion of the input of the 4-digit subaddress by counting the number of times the number is input with a built-in counter. Then, after automatically confirming that the 4-digit subaddress has been entered, the processing of step 460 (processing that prompts the user to enter the telephone number of the destination server) is performed, and the telephone number of the destination server entered by the user is determined. Received and temporarily stored (step 461) (described as “RECEIVE RESPONSE” in the figure).

  Thereafter, the user presses the start key 276 on the keypad 275 shown in FIG. 3 (step 470) (described as “USER PRESSES START KEY” in the figure). Here, it is assumed that a message for instructing pressing of the start key 276 is not displayed. If such a message is displayed, it can be dealt with by adding two steps as the processing for it.

  When the start key 276 is pressed in step 470, a TSI (Transmitting Station Identification) field is generated with the configuration shown in FIG. 5 (step 471) (in the figure, “PREPARE TSI” FIELD ”). Then, the generated TSI field is transmitted to the destination terminal, and facsimile transmission based on the sub-address is performed (step 480) (described as “SEND FAX DATA ALONGWITH SUBADDRESS” in the figure), and the processing is terminated (step 490).

  In this way, the user is instructed to input necessary data step by step (in order). As a result, the user can easily input long code information including a destination telephone number, special symbols, and sub-addresses.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of the TSI field. FIG. 5A shows a configuration in which the data fields that are input to the transmission source device 10 in advance of message transfer based on the user's operation are labeled, and FIG. 5B shows the configuration. A corresponding data example actually set is shown.

  For example, in the data field 500 of FIG. 5A, values representing “Yes” and “No” responses to the user transmission source device 10 are held. In this example, the user is prompted to input “1” and “0” indicating whether or not to input a subaddress. As shown in FIG. “1” is held, indicating that the user inputs a sub-address.

  In addition, the data field 501 in FIG. 5A holds the sub-address input by the user. For example, as shown in the data field 520 in FIG. “2222” representing the corresponding sub-address is held.

  Further, the data field 502 in FIG. 5A holds the telephone number of the destination server 30 in FIG. 1 input by the user. For example, as shown in the data field 530 in FIG. -555-1212 "is held. The transmission source device 10 sets a link to the destination server 30 via the general switched telephone network 20 by dialing this number.

  Image data to be transferred, which is the last data input to the transmission source device 10, is stored in the data field 503 of FIG. 5A in the digital data “1” and “0” as shown in FIG. Retained as data. The digital data (image data) in the data field 503 is not input via the user interface (operation), but the scanners 283 and 284, the network 240, the input / output control unit 225, the disk control in FIG. It is input via the unit 255 or the like.

  Based on the data input shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the transmission source device 10 includes data fields 550 to 552 and a sub-address data field 520 as shown in FIG. 5C. A TSI field portion 553 is generated. The TSI field portion 553 is received by the destination server 30, and the destination server 30 extracts information for transferring the data in the field 503 of FIG. 5A to the destination device 50 from the data field 552 portion. .

  In FIG. 5C, the data field 550 is a transmission source identifier, and in this figure, the telephone number “999-1211434” of the transmission source device 10 is shown as an example. Further, this transmission source identifier is given to the TSI field so that the transmission destination device 50 can identify the transmission source device 10. Further, the symbol “++” is automatically given to the data field 551 and the data field 552 by the transmission source device 10 during the processing of step 471 in FIG.

  By inserting such a symbol “++” in the data fields 551 and 552, the TSI field can be made compatible with the CCITTG3 subaddress specification. Thus, even when software such as “NetWare” (Version 4.1) is used, the destination server 30 can support the same TSI format, and the subaddress set in the data field 501 in FIG. The image data in the data field 503 can be extracted and transferred to the target transmission destination device 50.

  Note that the symbol “+” is included in a part of the CCITT G3 specification, and in a specific facsimile machine, “*” or “#” key input provided on a general keypad is used as a “+” symbol. Is set to convert to

  Once the TSI field 553 portion is transmitted, the destination server 30 receives the subaddress of the data field 520 during the handshake control between the transmission source and the destination server terminal, and sends it to the network corresponding to the transmission destination device 50. Convert to address.

  Thereafter, the destination server 30 formats the message in accordance with the corresponding network protocol and transfers the message to the destination device 50. When all message information is transferred from the destination server 30 to the destination device 50, the destination server 30 confirms the receipt information from the destination device 50 and then disconnects the call connection.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of processing operation of the destination server in FIG. 1 according to the present invention. In this example, the destination server 30 converts the subaddress into a network address such as an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Based on the network address such as the IP address, the message data 503 in FIG. 5A is transferred to the transmission destination apparatus 50 in FIG.

  Starting from step 600, first, a TSI data field (data block) sent from the transmission source device 10 is received (step 610) (described as “RECEIVE DATA BLOCK FROM SOURCE TERMINAL” in the figure), and FIG. c) Recognizing the symbol “++” in the data field 551 and extracting the following four data, thereby extracting a 4-digit sub-address from the received TSI data field (step 620) (“EXTRACT 4” in the figure). -DIGIT SUBADDRESS ").

  Then, using the extracted four-digit subaddress as a key, a search is made for a set of IP addresses corresponding to the subaddress or a network address such as an ATM address or an appropriate network extension from a lookup table registered in advance in the memory. A single IP address corresponding to the 4-digit subaddress is specified (step 630) (described as “LOOK-UP TABLES FOR EXTENSION AND IP ADDDRESS” in the figure).

  When the IP address is found in this way, the protocol corresponding to the network where the destination server 30 is located, such as the network 40 of FIG. 1 made of Ethernet (registered trademark) of Novell, or another network, using this IP address. A network message header is generated in the format (step 640) (described as “FORMAT NETWORK HEADER” in the figure).

  After generating this message header, the facsimile data previously received by the destination server 30 is sent as a network message to the destination device 50 (step 650) (in the figure, described as “SEND FACSIMILE DATA TO DESTINATION TERMINAL”) ). Then, after all the facsimile data is transferred and relayed to the destination apparatus 50, the processing is terminated (step 660).

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a second processing operation example of the transmission source apparatus in FIG. 2 according to the present invention. This example shows an example of forming a polling message. This polling message is a special type of digital information that requests the destination server to read a data file from the destination device and transfer the file to the source device.

  The polling message is similar to the routing message described with reference to FIG. 4, but has an additional polling field added to the TSI data field 553 shown in FIG. Hereinafter, the processing operation in FIG. 7 will be described. Steps 700, 705, 710, 715, 720, 745, 750, 755, and 760 are the same as steps 410, 420, 430, 440, 450, 460, FIG. These correspond to 470, 480, and 490, respectively, and description thereof is omitted here.

  In this example, after step 720, the polling message format that is not included in the processing operation in FIG. 4 is performed. First, the user is prompted whether or not to request polling to the transmission destination device 50 (step 725) (described as “PROMPTUSER IF POLLING REQUESTED” in the figure). Specifically, in order to indicate that polling is requested (Yes), the user is prompted to input “1” using the keypad 275 of FIG. 3, and “0” indicating No if not requested. An instruction prompting to input is displayed.

  A response from the user according to this instruction is received (step 730) (described as “RECEIVE RESPONSE” in the figure), and it is determined whether the response is “Yes” or “No” (step 735) (in the figure, “IS RESPONSE AFFIRMATIVE?). If the determination result is “No” (no polling request), the user is prompted to input the telephone number of the destination server, and the input telephone number is temporarily stored (step 745) (“INPUT TELEPHONE NUMBER” in the figure). ”).

  If “Yes” (polling request exists), the user is prompted to input the file identifier associated with the file to be retrieved (read) from the transmission destination device 50, and the input file identifier is temporarily stored. (Step 740) (denoted as “PROMPT USER TO INPUT FILE ID” in the figure). Thereafter, in step 745, the user is prompted to input the telephone number of the destination server, and the input telephone number is temporarily stored.

  The transmission source device 10 is desired to automatically recognize the second digit of the two-digit file identifier input from the keypad 275. However, in this case, a step for instructing the user to indicate the time point when the user has completed the input of the file identifier is added, and the processing procedure increases.

  In this way, after the user inputs the telephone number of the destination server, the user further presses the start key 276 in FIG. 3 (step 750) (described as “USER PRESSES START KEY” in the figure). Then, a TSI field is created (step 751) (described as “PREPARE TSI FIELD” in the figure). This TSI field includes a polling request as shown in FIG.

  Then, after the completion of the TSI format, the TSI field including the created sub address, file identifier, and polling code is transmitted to the destination apparatus 50 (step 755) (described as “SEND FAX DATA ALONG WITH SUBADDRESS” in the figure). ), The process is terminated (step 760).

  FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration example of the data field. FIG. 8A shows the structure of the labeled data field that is input to the transmission source device 10 based on the operation from the user prior to the generation and transfer of the polling message to the transmission destination device 50. It consists of data fields 500 to 501, 800, 810. FIG. 8B shows a specific example corresponding to each of the input data fields 500 to 501, 800, 810 shown in FIG.

  The data fields 500 to 502 in FIG. 8A have the contents related to FIG. 5A, and the data fields 510 to 530 in FIG. 8B are related to FIG. Since it is the contents, detailed description here is omitted. In the data field 800 of FIG. 8A, a response (“Yes”, “No”) from the user of the transmission source device 10 prompted to input “1” or “0” indicating the presence or absence of a polling request is displayed. Hold.

  In the example shown in FIG. 8B, “1” is held in the data field 820 corresponding to the data field 800 in FIG. In this way, the user's polling request instruction is expressed. Also, the data field 810 in FIG. 8A holds the identifier of the file to be retrieved (read) from the transmission destination device 50, which is input by the user. For example, in FIG. In the field 830, “20” is indicated.

  As a result, the file to be read from the transmission destination device 50 is identified as the file “20”. The destination device from which the file “20” is read out is determined based on the subaddress held in the data field 501 in FIG. Based on the data field generated in this way, the TSI field shown in FIG. 8C is generated.

  FIG. 8C shows a TSI field 860 portion necessary for performing a polling request used in “NetWare” (virsion 4.1). Data fields 550 to 552 and 551 are the same as those shown in FIG. 5C and will not be described here.

  In the data field 840 in FIG. 8C, the “+” sign input from the transmission source device 10 is held. This data field 840 is located after the data field 520 and is used to inform the destination server 30 that a special request has been made.

  Here, as an example, the code “0220” is held in the data field 850. This is shown in the destination server 30 of FIG. 1 according to “NetWare” (virsion 4.1), where the first two digits “02” indicate a file read polling request and the latter two digits “20” This is the file identifier of the file to be read. That is, in FIG. 8C, a polling request for reading the file with the file identifier “20” from the transmission destination device specified by the subaddress “2222” is designated.

  Corresponding to the reception of the TSI field 860 in FIG. 8C, the destination server 30 in FIG. 1 reads the file with the file identifier “20” from the transmission destination device 50 via the network 40, and the file “ 20 ”is transferred to the transmission source device 10.

  The embodiment described above relates to the retrieval (reading) of the data file in the polling operation, but can also be applied to other polling operations. For example, as with other functions such as multi-station routing and multi-document retrieval, it can be used for ordering by a request source (in this example, the transmission source device 10 in FIG. 1).

  In the above example, the network has a connection configuration using transmission lines, but the present invention can also be applied to a network using radio. That is, the analog lines 21 and 22 in FIG. 1 can be replaced with a wireless communication network. As this wireless communication network, for example, the “narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone System (N-AMPS) cellular channel” of the type used in North America cellular telephone communication systems is suitable. is there.

  Other suitable wireless communication channels include “Global System for Mobile communications (GSM)”, “Personal Communications Services (PCS)”, “cordless telephone channels”, and the like. In the example using such a wireless communication channel, the destination server 30 and the transmission source device 10 are connected via a wireless modem instead of the analog lines 21 and 22 in FIG. 1, and the connection to the general switched telephone network 20 is also wireless. This is done via a modem.

  Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the configuration of the communication network related to the digital message forming system including the subaddress of the present invention. In the embodiment in FIG. 9, the transmission source device 10 is connected to the network 920 via the node 930, and the transmission source server 910 is connected to the network 920 via the node 940.

  The transmission source server 910 is connected to the exchange (described as “Analog Switch” in the figure) 23 of the general exchange telephone network 20 as in the example shown in FIG. Note that, as described above, a configuration in which a wireless channel is used may be used. The telephone number and subaddress input to the transmission source device 10 are used to generate routines and polling messages. These messages have the contents described in the above example.

  However, in this embodiment, unlike the other examples, each data generated by the transmission source device 10 such as the telephone number and subaddress of the destination server and facsimile data is transmitted to the transmission source server via the node 930 and the network 920. Forwarded to 910 (routed). The transmission source server 910 converts the transferred transmission source network message into a format suitable for transfer to the general exchange telephone network 20 (or a wireless channel or a data communication network).

  Here, the transmission source server 910 is desired to have a function capable of connecting to various modems. Due to such a symmetric configuration of the network system, the transmission destination device 50 can also poll the device in the network 920 (here, the transmission source device 10).

  As described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 9, in the digital message routing method and system including the subaddress according to the present embodiment, it is used when a digital message is transferred to the destination apparatus 50 via the destination server 30. In the generation of the subaddresses 501 and 520 and the transfer of the digital message, information used when transferring the digital message to the destination device 50 by the transmission source device 10 to the operator (user), for example, to the transmission destination device 50 The input of the telephone number of the connected destination server 30 and the subaddress of the transmission destination device 50 is sequentially prompted, and the transmission source device 10 takes in the information input by the user in such a procedure, and subaddress standard of CCITTG3 A digital message (facsimile information) conforming to Forming a message with a TSI information including the sub-address input from The.

  The message formed in this way is sent from the transmission source device 10 to the destination server 30, where the subaddress is extracted, and based on this subaddress, the message from the transmission source device 10 is sent to the destination server 30. The data is transferred from the server 30 to the transmission destination device 50. As a result, the user can easily set the subaddress to the digital message only by sequentially operating the keys based on the operation guide information from the transmission source device 10. Further, at this time, the transmission source device 10 automatically inserts the symbol “+” so that the sub-address can be distinguished from other information in the TSI, so that the user can record the long code information including a specific character. No input is required.

  Also, as a polling message used when reading a file from the transmission destination device 50, a digital message of a specific format can be formed by the transmission source device 10 and sent from the transmission source device 10 to the destination server 30. In addition, a polling message is formed using information specifying the file to be read and the address information indicating the position where the file is stored, which is input by prompting the operator. That is, the transmission source device 10 forms a polling message by setting a subaddress in the TSI field together with a specific polling code and a file identifier used for specifying a file to be read based on a user input operation. At this time, the source device 10 automatically inserts a specific “+” symbol to separate the subaddress, polling code, and file identifier from the rest of the digital message to form information.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the destination server 30 can convert the received subaddress into the IP address, ATM address, or the like of the transmission destination device 50. That is, when receiving the digital message from the transmission source device 10, the destination server 30 extracts a subaddress from the digital message, and refers to a lookup table or the like prepared in advance for an IP address or ATM address corresponding to the subaddress. To detect. Then, the destination server 30 can transfer the message to a destination apparatus that is closer to the server than the network server in the network by using the IP address or the ATM address. In addition, this invention is not limited to the Example demonstrated using FIGS. 1-9, It can change variously in the range which does not deviate from the summary.

It is a block diagram which shows the 1st Example of a structure of the communication network concerning the digital message forming system containing the subaddress of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the transmission source apparatus in FIG. FIG. 3 is a front view showing a configuration example of an LCD display device and a keypad of the transmission source device in FIG. 2. 3 is a flowchart showing a first processing operation example according to the present invention of the transmission source device in FIG. 2. It is explanatory drawing which shows the structural example of a TSI field. It is a flowchart which shows the processing operation example concerning this invention of the destination server in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the 2nd processing operation example concerning this invention of the transmission source apparatus in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the structural example of a data field. It is a block diagram which shows the 2nd Example of the structure of the communication network concerning the digital message forming system containing the subaddress of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  10: Source terminal, 20: General switched telephone network (PSTN), 21, 22: Analog line, 23: Analog switch, 30: Destination server, 31-35: Node 40: Data communication network (Network) 50-53: Destination terminal (Destination Terminal, Terminal), 205: CPU, 210: Display control unit (DISPLAY CONTROLLER), 215: CRT display device (CRT), 220: LCD Display device (LCD DISPLAY), 221: Guidance information, 225: Input / output controller (I / O Controller), 230: Hard disk drive (HDD), 240: Network (NETWORK), 241: General switching telephone network (PSTN Connect) 242: Printer (PRINTER), 245: Printer (Internal Printer), 250: Communication controller (COMM CONTROLLER), 255: Disk controller (DISK Controlle) r), 260: flexible disk drive (FD), 265: hard disk drive (HDD), 270: system bus (275), 275: keypad (KeyPad), 276: start key (Start), 277: stop key ( Stop), 280: Input control unit (INPUT CONTROLLER), 281: Mouse (MOUSE), 282: Keyboard (Keyboard), 283: Scanner (SCANNER), 284: Scanner (Internal Scanner), 285: ASIC, 290: ROM, 295: RAM, 500: Data field (Y / N), 501: Data field (Subaddress), 502: Data field (Destination #), 503: Data field (Data), 510: Data field (“1”), 520 : Data field ("2222"), 530: Data field ("888-555-1212"), 540: Data field (“101010 ...”), 550: Data field (“999-121-3434”), 551, 552: Data field (“++”), 553: TSI field part, 800: Data field (Y / N), 810: Data field (FIELD ID), 820: Data field (“1”), 830: Data field (“20”), 840: Data field (“+”), 850: Data field (“0220”) ): 860: TSI field, 910: transmission source server, 920: network, 930, 940: node.

Claims (1)

A display for displaying information to the user;
An input unit for receiving input of information from the user;
A storage unit for storing information;
A communication control unit that performs transmission / reception control of information via a network, and has a facsimile communication function,
As a means of performing programmed computer processing,
Means for executing a step of presenting on the display unit a screen for designating whether or not to perform transmission using input of a sub-address;
Means for executing a step of presenting on the display unit a screen for prompting the input of the subaddress in response to the designation to perform transmission using the input of the subaddress received by the input unit;
Means for executing a step of storing a sub-address input by the user from the input unit in the storage unit;
Means for executing a step of presenting on the display unit a screen for prompting input of a destination of a transmission destination device, which is different from a screen for prompting input of the subaddress after the screen for prompting input of the subaddress;
Means for storing the input of the destination of the transmission destination device input by the user via the input unit in the storage unit;
Accepts an execution instruction from the user, reads out the subaddress and the destination of the destination device from the storage unit, and transmits the data including the subaddress to the destination of the destination device via the communication control unit Means for executing the step of performing communication.

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