JPH06245012A - Facsimile server equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a facsimile server equipment capable of efficiently executing relay multi-address in a short time by relay multi-address transmission through the use of the plural facsimile equipments of a system. CONSTITUTION:At the time of incoming call which is instructed for relay multi- address to an optional facsimile equipments 2, 3, and 4 (FAX 1, e.g.), the facsimile server equipment receives it and stores received original data transferred from FAX 1 and the destination number of a multi-address destination in a storing part 22 being an internal memory. After finishing reception, a relay multi-address execution part 23 is activated so that a FAX selection part 26 selects the facsimile equipment to be used for relay multi-address. Then, the destination number and original data are transferred to the selected facsimile equipment. The selected facsimile equipment calls to the destination number to transmit original data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile server device, and more particularly to a facsimile server device which is located between a plurality of host computers (hereinafter abbreviated as hosts) and one or a plurality of facsimile devices, and controls the facsimile devices. The present invention relates to a facsimile server device having a relay broadcast function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there have been many examples of constructing a unique network such as a LAN in a company, and it is considered that the tendency will increase more and more in the future. In many of such networks, a facsimile device is arranged in the network to enable connection with other networks by using a communication line such as a public line or a dedicated line.

As is well known, a facsimile machine has the functions of a scanner, a printer, and a communication control, and can read, receive, or use a host computer (hereinafter
A document transferred from a host (abbreviated as host) can be transferred to a facsimile machine at a remote place, which is very useful as a resource in the network.

An example of such a system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-249560. This system connects a facsimile device and a personal computer, and controls the facsimile device by the personal computer.

[0005]

Since the conventional system as described above controls one facsimile machine by one host, it cannot cope with the increase in the amount of information to be processed. Speed is too late, or
There was a problem that it could not handle multiple hosts (terminals) in the network.

Therefore, a system using a facsimile server device that accepts processing requests from a plurality of hosts, selects a facsimile device to be used from a plurality of facsimile devices, and executes the process is conceivable.

As a plurality of facsimile machines applied to this system, those having various functions from high-end machines having a memory to low-end machines having no memory are conceivable. Conventionally, this system is used to perform relaying. When carrying out the broadcast, it has been considered that the facsimile apparatus itself instructed to carry out the broadcast serves as a relay station to perform the broadcast transmission. However, this relay broadcast system has a problem that it takes time to complete the broadcast transmission.

In view of the problems of the prior art described above, an object of the present invention is to perform a broadcast transmission by using a plurality of facsimile devices of the system, whereby a facsimile server which can efficiently perform a relay broadcast in a short time. To provide a device.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention of claim 1 is a facsimile server apparatus which is connected to a plurality of hosts and a plurality of facsimile machines and controls the facsimile machines. When any one of the facsimile devices receives a relay broadcast instruction, selects a storage unit that stores the received document data transferred from the facsimile device and the destination number, and a facsimile device involved in the relay broadcast. And a transfer unit for transferring the destination number and the received document data to the selected facsimile machine.

The invention of claim 2 is further characterized in that it has abbreviated dial information for collectively managing the abbreviated dial numbers of a plurality of facsimile machines.

A third aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the print of the received document data is transferred to a facsimile apparatus which is not selected by the selecting section.

Further, the invention of claim 4 is characterized in that the result of the relay broadcast communication is totalized in the storage unit and is centrally managed.

[0013]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, relay broadcasting can be carried out by using a plurality of facsimile devices existing in the system. As a result, the time required for relay broadcasting can be greatly reduced, and the entire system can be used efficiently.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the speed dial information controlled and managed by the facsimile server device can be efficiently used. Moreover, since the destination number of the relay broadcast transmission destination can be managed by the abbreviated number, the management information can be reduced.

According to the invention of claim 3, the time required for printing can be performed in parallel with the relay broadcast communication.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the result of the relay broadcast communication distributed to and executed by a plurality of facsimile devices is performed.
Since the facsimile server device can be centrally managed, the partner station that has failed in communication can be easily and accurately identified, and post-processing can be facilitated.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a system including a facsimile server device to which the present invention is applied.
Although details of the facsimile server device 1 will be described later, the facsimile server device 1 is connected to the facsimile devices 2, 3 and 4 by an individual connection line 9, and is also connected to a network 5 such as a LAN. The facsimile devices 2, 3 and 4 may be high-end machines having a memory for storing document data or low-end machines having no memory.

The facsimile machines 2, 3 and 4 are connected by a line 8 to a telephone network, an exchange network such as ISDN,
Also, the facsimile server device 1 is connected to the individual connection line 9.
Connected with. This connection line 9 is, for example, RS-23.
2C, GPIB, SCSI, etc., the facsimile server device 1 and the plurality of facsimile devices 2,
You may house 3 and 4 in one housing, and may be connected by an internal bus.

The network 5 is, for example, Ethernet,
The digital data network is a LAN such as FDDI or a switching network such as PBX. The hosts 6 and 7 are composed of general-purpose computers, workstations, personal computers, and the like, and may include those without a document data processing function.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an outline of the hardware configuration of the facsimile server device 1. In the figure, a CPU 10 controls the entire facsimile server device 1 according to a control program stored in a ROM 11. The RAM 12 stores the input or received image information, or stores various control data and tables.

The network connection unit 13 is an interface circuit of a digital data network such as a LAN such as Ethernet or FDDI, or a switching network such as PBX. The code conversion unit 14 is a circuit that converts the code data into image data for facsimile when the document is transmitted as code data from the terminal.

The facsimile connection units 15 and 16 are provided on the individual connection line 9 with the facsimile machine, for example, RS-232.
Interface circuits such as C, GPIB, and SCSI. The keyboard control unit 17 and the CRT control unit 18 are
It is an interface circuit of a keyboard and a CRT display which constitute a console of the facsimile server device 1. The bus 19 connects each circuit in the device. In addition to this, an external storage device such as a hard disk or an optical disk may be provided.

Next, the outline of the operation of the system shown in FIG. 5 will be described. In FIG. 5, for example, when the host 6 communicates, first, an instruction is sent to the facsimile server device 1. The facsimile server device 1 selects, for example, an available facsimile device that can be transferred at the highest speed, and transfers the transmission data from the host to the selected facsimile device. The facsimile machine that has received the transfer executes the transmission process in accordance with the instruction from the facsimile server machine 1. The facsimile server apparatus 1 always keeps track of the status of each facsimile apparatus such as busy, idle, or broken.

Next, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the functional block diagram of FIG. FIG. 1 shows the function of the facsimile server device 1 having the relay broadcast function.
Reference numeral 21 is a communication job execution unit that executes jobs such as transmission and reception, 22 is a storage unit (internal memory in the facsimile server device) that stores received document data and destination information, 23
Is a relay broadcast execution unit for instructing execution of relay broadcast when reception is instructed to perform relay broadcast.

Further, numeral 24 is a dial number expanding section for expanding the abbreviated dial number into a full dial number (telephone number),
Reference numeral 25 is abbreviated dial information, 26 is a facsimile selecting section for selecting a facsimile apparatus used for relay broadcasting, and 27 is a transfer section for transferring the data or information stored in the storage section 22 to the selected facsimile apparatus.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When a facsimile machine, for example, FAX 1 in FIG. 1 detects an incoming call, this is notified to the communication job executing section 21 of the facsimile server machine. The communication job execution unit 21 determines whether or not reception is possible, taking into consideration the free area of the storage unit 22 (step S).
1).

If the communication job execution unit 21 determines that the call is receivable, the process proceeds to step S2 to accept the incoming call. Then, the FAX 1 is notified to start the reception job. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S1 that the reception is impossible due to a small free space in the storage unit 22 or the like, the incoming call is ignored.

In step S3, the reception job is executed,
In step S4, the document data received via the FAX 1 is stored in the storage unit 22. In step S5, it is determined whether or not the reception is a reception instructed by a relay broadcast.
If the FAX 1 is instructed as a relay station for relay broadcasting, the instructed destination number is transferred to the facsimile server together with the received original document.

In step S6, the transferred destination number is stored in the storage unit 22. On the other hand, the step S
When the result of the determination in No. 5 is negative, the process ends after the document data has been received.

If the destination number received by the FAX 1 is a speed dial number, the FAX 1 expands the destination number into a full dial number (telephone number), and all the expanded full dial numbers are sent to the facsimile server. Transfer to device. Alternatively, in this system, when the facsimile server device manages all the abbreviated dials all at once, the FAX 1 transfers the received abbreviated dial number, which is the destination number, to the facsimile server device as it is.

Next, the operation of the facsimile server device for transmitting the relay broadcast will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the relay broadcast execution unit 23 is activated, the process of step S11 is performed, and the received destination number is stored in the storage unit 2.
It is read from 2. At this time, if the destination number is a full dial number, it is sent to the transfer unit 27 as it is, and if it is a shortened dial number, it is expanded by the dial number expansion unit 24 and sent to the transfer unit 27.

In step S12, the facsimile selection unit 26 causes the plurality of facsimile devices (FAX 1, 2, ...
n), select one that meets the conditions, and then step S13
Then, the destination number is transferred to the facsimile device.

Next, in step S14, the original data stored in the storage unit 22 which is an internal memory of the facsimile server device is transferred to the selected facsimile device and a transmission job is started. That is, the facsimile machine is made to execute transmission.

In step S15, it is determined whether or not all the destination numbers have been transferred. If the determination is negative, the process returns to step S12 and the same operation as described above is repeated. In this way, when the facsimile devices used for relay broadcast are sequentially selected and all the designated destination numbers are transferred, the determination in step S15 becomes affirmative and the process ends.

Next, the operation after the end of the relay broadcast transmission will be described with reference to FIG. When the selected facsimile device completes the transmission, it notifies the facsimile server device of the result, so that in step S21, the facsimile server device accepts the transmission result and stores it in the internal memory.

In step S22, it is determined whether or not all the transmission results have been received. If it is determined that all the transmission results have been received, the process proceeds to step S23 to total the communication results. The facsimile server device may then transfer the totaled result to the relay broadcast instruction station.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when an arbitrary facsimile apparatus of this system receives an incoming call for which relay broadcast is instructed, it can easily function as a relay station.

One of the relay broadcast functions is to output a copy of the original data at the relay station. In this case, a facsimile machine other than the one selected above, that is, an empty facsimile machine is selected. Can be printed out. With this function, the use time of the entire relay broadcast job can be shortened.

[0039]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the relay broadcast can be carried out by using a plurality of facsimile apparatuses existing in the system, so that the time required for the relay broadcast can be greatly shortened. Therefore, the entire system can be used efficiently.

According to the invention of claim 2, since the destination number of the relay broadcast transmission destination can be managed by the abbreviated number, the management information can be reduced.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the time required for printing can be performed in parallel with the relay broadcast communication.
Therefore, the time required for relay broadcast communication including the print can be shortened.

According to the invention of claim 4, the result of the relay broadcast communication distributed to a plurality of facsimile devices and executed is
Since the facsimile server device can be centrally managed, the partner station that has failed in communication can be easily and accurately identified, and post-processing can be facilitated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing functions of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a receiving operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a transmission operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation of a transmission result of the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of the entire system.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a facsimile server device.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Facsimile server apparatus, 2, 3, 4 ... Facsimile apparatus, 5 ... Network, 6, 7 ... Host computer, 21 ... Communication job execution section, 22 ... Storage section, 23 ... Relay broadcast execution section, 24 ... Dial number Expansion unit, 26 ... Facsimile device selection unit, 27 ... Transfer unit.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile server device, which is connected to a plurality of hosts and a plurality of facsimile devices and controls the facsimile devices, when any one of the plurality of facsimile devices receives a relay broadcast instruction. , A storage unit for storing the received document data transferred from the facsimile device and the destination number, a selection unit for selecting a facsimile device involved in relay broadcast, and the destination number and the received document data for the selected facsimile device. A facsimile server device comprising a transfer unit for transferring. 2. The facsimile server device according to claim 1, further comprising abbreviated dial information for collectively managing abbreviated dial numbers of the plurality of facsimile devices, and expanding the destination number accumulated in the accumulating unit into a full dial number. Then, the facsimile server device is configured to transfer the data to the transfer unit. 3. The facsimile server device according to claim 1, wherein the received document data is printed by being transferred to a facsimile device not selected by the selection unit. 4. The facsimile server device according to claim 1, wherein the result of the relay broadcast communication is totaled in the storage unit and is centrally managed.