JPH06303364A - Communication control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To more reduce communication cost by transmitting the smaller amount of data by utilizing a repeating transmission system. CONSTITUTION:Various data are transmitted from a transmission station 1a to a repeater station 3 by using a file transfer protocol in a data form excepting for the small data amount of facsimile data, and the amount of data to be transmitted is reduced. These data are made into facsimile data at the repeater station 3 and transmitted to respective reception stations 2a-2n by using a facsimile protocol.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication control method for relaying and transferring various data transmitted from a transmitting station to a receiving station via a relay station, and more particularly to reducing communication cost.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Facsimile communication has been remarkable in development and opening of public line networks, standardization of communication protocols, and support of standard protocols in facsimile machines. Further, in recent years, the variety of needs in facsimile communication is expected, and a composite facsimile apparatus having various functions has also appeared. Under such circumstances, it is expected that the number of signals and information passing through the communication system will increase in the facsimile communication.

A typical communication protocol is as follows.
There are G3 facsimile protocol and G4 facsimile protocol. In facsimile communication, imaged data using these protocols is transferred to MMR, MR,
It is transmitted and received after being compressed by an encoding method such as MH.

In this facsimile communication, in order to reduce the communication cost, a relay transmission system is also adopted as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-228349. The relay transmission method is, for example, when transmitting a document from multiple destinations from Tokyo to Osaka, instead of communicating from Tokyo to each destination in Osaka, a relay station is installed in Osaka and the relay from Tokyo is performed. In this method, the document is sent to the station and the document is sent from the relay station to each destination in Osaka.

Further, personal computers, workstations, etc. have become widespread, and documents have been created in various data formats using various editors and word processors. In order to directly send a document created in various data formats to a destination, a file transfer protocol, an OSI protocol, etc. are used in addition to the facsimile protocol. It has become possible to communicate in the form of data.

Further, even in the G3 facsimile protocol, the function of supporting file transfer is recommended by CCITT, and there is a possibility that various data formats other than facsimile data are frequently transmitted and received. There is.

[0007]

Usually, although the facsimile data is compressed, it contains image data, so that the amount of data is relatively large. On the other hand, personal computer
Facsimile data created by a computer or workstation
Since various data other than the data are the data before being imaged, the data amount is smaller than the image data in most cases. Especially as the number of pages of documents increases,
The difference between these data amounts becomes large. For this reason, the communication cost is often higher when transmitting facsimile data than when transmitting various data other than facsimile data by the file transfer protocol.

The present invention has been made in order to improve such disadvantages, and communication control which can reduce communication cost by transmitting data with a small amount of data by using a relay transmission system. It is intended to provide a method.

[0009]

A communication control method according to the present invention is a communication control method for relay-transferring various data transmitted from a plurality of transmitting stations to a plurality of receiving stations via a relay station. A file transfer program is used between the transmitting station and the relay station to transfer various data other than facsimile data.
The data is transmitted in the data format, and the relay station displays the received various data.
It is characterized in that it is digitized and facsimile encoded and transmitted to each receiving station using a facsimile protocol.

The above-mentioned relay station synthesizes the received data into a pattern of a predetermined form, then image-encodes it and facsimile-encodes it and sends it to each receiving station using a facsimile protocol.

If the relay station can send the data received in the data format other than the facsimile data to the receiving station as it is, it is preferable to send the received data by using the file transfer program. .

Further, the transmitting station image-converts and facsimile-encodes various data configured in a data format other than the facsimile data into facsimile data, which is the data other than the facsimile data. The data amount of the data format is compared with that of the facsimile data.
It is preferable to send the data to the relay station.

[0013]

According to the present invention, a file transfer program is used from the transmitting station to the relay station to transmit various data in a data format other than facsimile data having a small amount of data, and to transmit the data. Reduce the amount of data. This data is converted into facsimile data by the relay station and transmitted to each receiving station.

Further, the relay station synthesizes the received data into a pattern of a predetermined form and then forms the facsimile data so that the data transmitted from the transmitting station to the relay station. Use less.

Further, if the relay station can send the data received in the data format other than the facsimile data to the receiving station as it is, the received data is sent as it is without being converted into the facsimile data. However, the amount of data transmitted from the relay station to the receiving station is also reduced.

Further, the transmitting station has a data amount of various data formed in a data format other than the facsimile data, and an amount of data when the data is converted into the facsimile data. And the data having a small amount of data are transmitted to the relay station, so that the data is transmitted from the transmitting station to the relay station with the smallest amount of data.

[0017]

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, a plurality of facsimile machines 1a-1
n and a plurality of facsimile devices 2a to 2n are connected via a relay station 3. Each of the facsimile machines 1a to 1n,
2a to 2n and the relay station 3, as shown in the block diagram of FIG. 2, the system control unit 4, the communication control unit 5, the memory unit 6, the hard disk 7, the encoding / decoding unit 8, the data conversion unit. Part 9,
Operation display unit 10, interface unit 11, plotter 1
2 and a scanner 13.

The system control unit 4 has a ROM in which a CPU and a basic program as the device and various programs are stored, and controls each unit of the device. The communication control unit 5 uses ISDN or P
By connecting to an STN or the like, a predetermined call control procedure process or transmission procedure process is executed with each circuit network by various protocols such as a facsimile protocol and a file transfer protocol. The memory unit 6 stores various data necessary for controlling the device. In the memory section 6, transmission / reception data from each of the facsimile machines 1a to 1n and 2a to 2n, created document data, and a personal computer and a word via an interface section 11. The document data sent from the station is also temporarily stored and constitutes a work area for the program in the ROM. The hard disk 7 stores a part of the processing program of the CPU of the system controller 4, transmission / reception data, document data, various conversion data, and the like. The encoding / combining unit 8 compresses or expands the image data. The data conversion unit 9 converts one data format into another data format. The operation display unit 10 has a keyboard, various operation keys, and a display, inputs various commands, and displays the input contents and various information.

The interface section 11 is used for various commands such as personal computer, work station and data to control data, document data and printout data.
Receive personal data, conversion data, etc., and personal computer
Sends data and various information to data and workstations and data. The plotter 12 prints out various data, and the scanner 13 reads an original image at a predetermined resolution.

Each of the facsimile machines 1a to 1n and 2a
2n and the relay station 3 are transmitted and received by the G3 facsimile protocol shown in FIG. 3 or the G4 facsimile protocol shown in FIG. 4, and as shown in FIG. 5, a file transfer protocol is applied to the G3 facsimile protocol by an original procedure. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6, a protocol for applying a file transfer protocol to the G4 facsimile protocol by a unique procedure is used. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the file transfer protocol in the G3 facsimile protocol recommended by CCITT is also applied. In the file transfer protocol of the G3 facsimile protocol, the transmission / reception function is set by DIS and DCS, and then the file or data to be actually communicated is transmitted by "data".

The operation of transmitting various data from the facsimile machine 1a to the facsimile machines 2a to 2n in the communication system configured as described above is shown in the flowchart of FIG.
It will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the facsimile machine 1a which is the transmitting station
Other than facsimile data sent from a personal computer or a workstation through the interface section 11 or a document created by a word processor or the like. The document data composed of is set as a document to be transmitted (step S1). Next, the transmitting station 1a transmits to the relay station 3. When transmitting to the relay station 3, when the data to be transmitted is facsimile data, the transmitting station 1a transmits the data according to the standard G3 facsimile protocol or G4 facsimile protocol shown in FIGS. It is transmitted (steps S2, S3, S4). Also,
When the data to be transmitted is the document data configured in the data format other than the facsimile data, the transmission station 1a applies the file transfer protocol by the unique procedure shown in FIGS. Document data configured in a data format other than facsimile data by the file transfer protocol of G3 facsimile protocol recommended by CCITT or CCITT is transmitted to the relay station 3 (steps S2 and S5).
When the relay station 3 finishes receiving the document data transmitted by the file transfer protocol (step S6), the transmitted document data is converted into image data by the data conversion unit 9, and the code is encoded. Encoding is performed by the encoding / combining unit 8 (step S
7). After that, the relay station 3 converts the document data converted into the facsimile data into the standard G3 facsimile protocol or G4.
Predetermined receiving stations 2a to 2n according to a facsimile protocol
(Step S8). And all receiving stations 2a
After transmitting the document data to 2n, the transmission process is terminated (step S9).

In this way, when the document data is transmitted from the transmitting station 1a to the relay station 3 when the document data is a document data configured in a data format other than the facsimile data. The amount of data to be transmitted can be reduced because it is transmitted as it is without being converted into facsimile data.

When transmitting document data configured in a data format other than facsimile data using the file transfer protocol from the transmitting station 1a to the relay station 3, it is previously stored in the memory section 6 of the relay station 3. By registering a pattern of a fixed form, the amount of data transmitted from the transmitting station 1a to the relay station 3 can be further reduced. For example, relay station 3
If the patterns of various tables are registered in the table, when the document data including the table is transmitted from the transmitting station 1a, the table portion will be the data.
It suffices to transmit only the data item, embed the data in the pattern in the table in the relay station 3, then make the facsimile data, and transmit it to each receiving station.

In the above embodiment, the document data is transferred from the relay station 3 to the receiving stations 2a to 2n by the standard facsimile protocol.
The case where the data is transmitted has been described, but the receiving stations 2a to 2
In the case where n is a data conversion unit 9 for converting document data configured in a data format other than facsimile data into facsimile data, the facsimile data received by the relay station 3 is received. Document data configured in a data format other than the above may be directly transmitted using the file transfer protocol.
As described above, by transmitting the document data between the relay station 3 and each of the receiving stations 2a to 2n using the facsimile protocol or the file transfer protocol according to the format of the document data, the relay station 3 and each of the receiving stations 2a to 2n are transmitted. The amount of transmission data between the receiving stations 2a to 2n can also be reduced.

Further, in the above embodiments, when the document data is transmitted from the transmission station 1a, the data other than the facsimile data is transmitted.
The case has been explained where the document data configured in the data format is directly transmitted using the file transfer protocol.
The document conversion unit 9 of the transmitting station 1a converts the document data configured in the data format other than the facsimile data into facsimile data, and the CPU of the system control unit 4 converts the document data. The amount of data of the data is compared with the amount of data of the document data configured in a data format other than the original facsimile data, and the document data having a small amount of data is relayed. You may send it to. Normally, the amount of document data composed in a data format other than facsimile data becomes large when converted to facsimile data, but in some cases the reverse case is also possible. Therefore, even in such a case, the minimum transmission data
The document data can be transmitted in the amount of data.

[0027]

As described above, the present invention uses the file transfer program from the transmitting station to the relay station to make various data.
Since data is transmitted in a data format other than facsimile data having a small amount of data and the amount of data to be transmitted is reduced, the communication time can be shortened and the communication cost can be reduced.

Further, the relay station synthesizes the received data into a pattern of a predetermined form and then forms the facsimile data so that the data transmitted from the transmitting station to the relay station. The amount can be smaller.

When the relay station can send the data received in the data format other than the facsimile data to the receiving station as it is, the received data is transmitted as it is without being converted into the facsimile data. By doing so, the amount of data transmitted from the relay station to the receiving station can be reduced, and the communication cost can be further reduced.

Further, the transmitting station has a data amount of various data formed in a data format other than the facsimile data and an amount of data when the data is converted into the facsimile data. By comparing with and transmitting the data having a small amount of data to the relay station, the data can be transmitted from the transmitting station to the relay station with the smallest amount of data, and the lowest communication cost. The document data can be sent at.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing configurations of a facsimile device and a relay station.

FIG. 3 is a signal sequence diagram showing a G3 facsimile protocol.

FIG. 4 is a signal sequence diagram showing a G4 facsimile protocol.

[FIG. 5] G including a file transfer protocol by an original procedure
3 is a signal sequence diagram showing a 3 facsimile protocol. FIG.

[FIG. 6] G including a file transfer protocol in an original procedure
FIG. 4 is a signal sequence diagram showing a four-facsimile protocol.

FIG. 7 is a signal sequence diagram showing a G3 facsimile protocol including a CCITT recommended file transfer protocol.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a to 1n Facsimile device 2a to 2n Facsimile device 3 Relay station 4 System control unit 5 Communication control unit 9 Data conversion unit 11 Interface unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A communication control method for relay-transferring various data transmitted from a plurality of transmitting stations to a plurality of receiving stations via a relay station, wherein a file transfer protocol is provided between each transmitting station and the relay station. Various kinds of data are transmitted in a data format other than the facsimile data, and the relay station makes an image and facsimile-encodes the received various data and sends it to each receiving station using the facsimile protocol. A communication control method characterized by the above. 2. The relay station synthesizes the received data into a pattern of a predetermined form, and then image-encodes and facsimile-encodes the transmitted data to each receiving station using a facsimile protocol. Item 1. The communication control method according to Item 1. 3. The relay station stores data other than facsimile data.
2. The communication control method according to claim 1, wherein if the data received in the data format can be sent to the receiving station as it is, the received data is sent using a file transfer program. 4. The transmitting station is the data other than the facsimile data.
Various types of data configured in the data format are imaged and facsimile-encoded to form facsimile data. The amount of data other than the facsimile data and the data of the facsimile data. 4. The communication control method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the amounts are compared and the data having a small amount of data is transmitted to the relay station.