JPH0269071A - Facsimile mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To minimize the communication time and data volume at the time of retransmission by starting the retransmission from an insufficiently received page in response to the request from facsimile equipment. CONSTITUTION:When an error is detected during transmission, the remaining data including the page on which the error occurs are transferred to a retransmission memory 22. Then the address of the destination terminal is registered in a retransmission registering table 19 and the process is completed after setting a state for waiting the retransmission request from the registered terminal. When the retransmission of the remaining data is requested, a retransmission request switch SW 5 is set after the erroneous state is remedied and a retransmission request is made to a server 1. The server 1 performs and a polling process from the terminal upon receiving the request.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention stores received data including distribution destination information from a facsimile device in a server, and then transfers the accumulated received data to the distribution destination according to access from the facsimile device. The present invention relates to a facsimile mail system for delivering data to facsimile machines.

[Conventional technology] Conventionally, in facsimile mail systems that store image data on a server and then distribute it, if some trouble occurs during data transmission and all data cannot be sent, the facsimile mail system transmits image data after a predetermined period of time has elapsed since the trouble occurred. , the server is configured to retransmit all data in response to a call to the terminal or a retransmission request from the terminal.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above conventional example, even if the facsimile machine receives and outputs normally up to a certain page of data spanning multiple pages, when it is retransmitted, the first page is In order to resend all the data from the original, there is a waste of sending the document twice for the normal reception valve. In addition, when public lines are used, the retransmission time and amount of retransmitted data increase, resulting in an increase in communication costs at the time of retransmission.

The present invention was made to solve the above problems, and
To provide a facsimile mail system that resends only subsequent image data including the page where the error occurred when an error occurs during image data transmission from a server to a facsimile device.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, a facsimile mail system of the present invention has the following configuration.

That is, a facsimile mail system that stores received data including delivery destination information from a facsimile device in a server, and then delivers the stored received data to the destination facsimile device according to access from the facsimile device, the system comprising: , a control means for controlling the transmission of accumulated received data page by page; a monitoring means for monitoring an abnormality during transmission of the received data by the control means; and a retransmission means for retransmitting the data stored in the storage means to the destination facsimile device in response to a retransmission request from the destination facsimile device.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Description of System Configuration (FIG. 1)] FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing the configuration of the facsimile mail system in this embodiment.

In the figure, numeral 1 indicates a server body for storing and exchanging image data, and numerals 28 to 2c are facsimile machines used in this system. The facsimile device 2a includes a scanner for reading image data and a printer for printing the received data.
, a control unit 4 that controls the l103, a switch 5 that instructs the server 1 to request retransmission when a trouble occurs, a controller 6 that controls the entire facsimile machine 2a, and a control information (program) for the main controller 6, which will be described later, written therein. a control ROM 7, a table 8 for registering a source address (hereinafter referred to as SA) during normal or retransmission;
an encoder/decoder 9 that modulates and demodulates transmitted and received data;
It consists of a memory 10 which is a transmission/reception buffer, a control section 11 which controls communication protocols, and an input/output section 12 which is a communication boat.

On the other hand, the server 1 includes an input/output section 13 which is a communication boat, a communication control section 14 having the same function as the communication control section 11 of each of the facsimile devices 28 to 2C, a controller 15 that controls the entire server 1, and a main unit to be described later. ROM1 in which control information (program) for the controller 15 is written
6. A table 17 for registering the comparison of transmission SAs during normal and retransmission requests, a table 18 indicating the distribution destination of accumulated data, a table 19 indicating addresses of terminals where retransmission data exists, data storage memories 21 and 22 It consists of a memory controller 2o that controls the image data, a memory 21 that stores image data, and a memory 22 that stores retransmission data, and connects each facsimile device 2a to 2c to communication lines 23a to 2.
It is connected with 3c.

In the facsimile mail system, for example, when image data is transmitted from the facsimile device 2a to the facsimile device 2b, the image data is always transmitted and received via the server l.

Note that the image data transmission/reception processing performed between the facsimile device 2a and the server 1 is performed by the respective communication control units 11, 14 according to the facsimile communication protocol.

[Description of Operation (FIGS. 2 and 3)] The image data (document) distribution operation of the facsimile mail system in this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 3.

First, in step S1 shown in FIG. 3, when an incoming call is received from each facsimile machine 28 to 2C,
determines in step S2 whether the facsimile device is to transmit the document or retrieve the document from within the server 1;
If the facsimile device is for document transmission, step S3
The process proceeds to receive operation. Then, in the process of step S4, the designated address (hereinafter referred to as DA) of the destination facsimile device that is sent at the same time as the document data is written into the stored document transmission table 18, and in step S5, the document data is stored in the memory 21. The process ends. At this time, the data such as the storage address in the memory 21 is as follows.
It is written to table 18 along with DA.

Next, after completing the data reception, the server 1 executes the process shown in FIG. 3 unless there is a special instruction such as specifying the distribution time. First, in step S6, the stored document transmission table 18
The communication controller 14 is instructed to make a call to the DA recorded in the DA.

Then, as shown in step S7, if the call setup is completed and the destination facsimile machine (hereinafter referred to as a terminal) is capable of receiving, the process advances to step S8. However, if the other party's terminal is unresponsive or in a state of confusion, after a certain period of time,
Perform call processing again.

In step S8, the main controller 15 starts transmitting the document data stored in the memory 21 through the memory controller 2o. During this data transmission, the communication control unit 14 monitors the presence or absence of errors on a page-by-page basis and reports this to the main controller 15. Upon receiving this report, the main controller 15 determines whether there is an error during transmission in step S8, and if there is an error, the process proceeds to step S12.

However, if there is no error, the process proceeds to step SIO, where the sent document data in the memory 21 is cleared through the main controller 20, and if there is remaining data, the process returns to step S9 to send the next page. . Then, when the transmission is completed without any errors, step S
At 11, the communication controller 14 is instructed to end the transmission and disconnect the call. Then, upon termination from the communication control unit 14, in step S20, the stored document transmission table 18
The data such as the specified address of the destination facsimile machine registered in , and the storage address in the memory 21 are cleared, and the process ends.

On the other hand, if an error is detected during transmission as determined in step S9, the remaining data including the page at which the error occurred is transferred to retransmission memory 22 in step SL2. and,
In step S13, the address of the sending terminal is registered in the retransmission registration table 19, and in step S14, the process transitions to a waiting state for a retransmission request from the registered terminal, and the process ends.

If the user desires to retransmit the remaining data after recovering from the error, a retransmission request is made to the server 1 by setting retransmission request SW5, which will be described later. The server 1 that receives this retransmission request performs polling (retransmission request) processing from the terminal.

Here, the processing of a terminal that makes a retransmission request will be described below.

When SW5 indicating a retransmission request is set by the user, the main controller 6 of the terminal sets the retransmission request address (hereinafter referred to as SA2) recorded in the address table 8 to SA, and sends a message to the server 1. Perform polling.

In addition, when performing normal polling, the normal address of address table 8 (hereinafter referred to as SAI)
use.

Next, the processing of the server 1 that receives the retransmission request from the terminal will be described below.

In step S15 of FIG. 2, the server 1 that received the polling from the terminal determines the SA, and 5A=SA 1
In this case, the presence or absence of an accumulated document is checked in step S16. - Then, in step S18, it is determined whether there is a registration in the table, and if there is, the process from step S8 in FIG. 3 is performed, but if there is no registration, step S1
At step 9, the communication control unit 14 is instructed to disconnect the call, and the polling process is ended.

On the other hand, if 5A=SA2 (retransmission request), the retransmission registration table 19 is referred to in step S17, and based on the result, retransmission processing and call disconnection processing are performed in step 818 described above.

Note that the determination between SAI and SA2 in step S15 is made based on table information recorded in the address registration table 17.

In this embodiment, received document data and retransmission document data are stored in separate memories, but it is also possible to efficiently manage data using only one memory.

Further, although the facsimile machine is provided with a retransmission request switch, the presence/absence of a retransmission request may be manually set in the memory at the time of system startup, and the retransmission may be performed according to the setting.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be achieved by retransmitting pages whose reception was incomplete upon request from the facsimile machine.

1. There is no need to receive twice the normal reception on the receiver side.

2. Communication time and data capacity during retransmission can be minimized, so when using a public line, communication cost during retransmission is minimized.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block configuration diagram of the facsimile mail system in this embodiment, Fig. 2 is an operational flowchart of the server 1 in this embodiment when a call is received, and Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the facsimile mail system in this embodiment. It is an operation flowchart when making a call. In the figure, 1... server, 2a to 2c... facsimile machine, 3... Ilo, 4... I10 control unit,
5...Switch, 6...Main controller, 7.
...ROM. 8...Memory for address registration, 9...Encoder/
Decoder, 10... Buffer, 11... Communication control unit, 12... Input/output unit, 13... Server input/output unit,
14... Communication control unit, 15... Main controller, 16... ROM, 17... SA registration memory, 1
8...Memory for sending address registration, 19...Memory for retransmission address registration, 20...Memory controller,
21...Normal storage memory, 22...Retransmission data storage memory, 23a to 23c...Communication lines.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim] A facsimile mail system that stores received data including delivery destination information from a facsimile device in a server, and then delivers the stored received data to the destination facsimile device according to access from the facsimile device. , a control means for controlling transmission of accumulated received data page by page to the server; a monitoring means for monitoring an abnormality during transmission of received data by the control means; The present invention is characterized by comprising a storage means for storing unsent data including a page being transmitted, and a retransmission means for retransmitting the data stored in the storage means to the destination facsimile device in accordance with a retransmission request from the destination facsimile device. facsimile mail system.