Facsimile communication system

Details Facsimile communication system Facsimile communication system

1999-10-18

2001-09-04

Coles, Edward (Department: 2722)

Facsimile and static presentation processing

Facsimile

Auxiliary signal

C358S404000, C358S407000, C358S436000, C358S442000, C358S468000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06285466

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a facsimile communication apparatus for allowing a plurality of facsimile machines designed for general telephone networks to communicate with each other via a data communication network, such as a local area network (LAN), and to a program recording unit which stores a program used in the facsimile communication apparatus. This invention also relates to a facsimile communication apparatus for allowing a plurality of facsimile machines to communicate with each other in real time via an Internet Protocol network (referred to as an IP network) based on the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), and to a program recording unit storing a program for controlling the facsimile communication apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1
illustrates a conventional facsimile communication system using a data communication network, such as an LAN. The transmission side facsimile machine
1
is a G3 facsimile machine designed for general telephone networks, which is categorized according to the T.30 Recommendation standardized by the ITU-T (International Telecommunications Union, Telecommunication Standardization Department). The facsimile machine
1
is connected to the facsimile communication apparatus
10
A via a telephone network
2
. The facsimile communication apparatus (i.e., the gateway)
10
A converts the communication protocol between the telephone network
2
and the LAN
4
. The LAN
4
is further connected to another facsimile communication apparatus (i.e., gateway)
10
B, to which the receiving side facsimile machine
7
is connected via a telephone network
6
. The facsimile machines
1
and
7
have the same standard, and they can mutually transmit and receive image information via the telephone networks. The facsimile communication apparatus
10
B has the same structure as the facsimile communication apparatus
10
A, and the explanation on it will be omitted.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, the facsimile communication apparatus
10
A has a terminal accommodation circuit
3
a,
to which a plurality of facsimile machines
1
a
through
1
n
are connected via the corresponding telephone lines
2
a,
2
b,
. . . ,
2
n
of the telephone network
2
. The terminal accommodation circuit
3
a
is connected to a switch circuit
3
b
which selects the line which is currently requesting a facsimile transmission from among the telephone lines
2
a
through
2
n.
A CODEC
3
c
is connected to the switch circuit
3
b
in order to terminate the selected line. The CODEC
3
c
is a encoder/decoder which converts analog signals received from the telephone line
2
a
into digital signals, and which decodes digital signals into analog signals in order to output data to the telephone line
2
a.
The terminal accommodation circuit
3
a,
the switch circuit
3
b
and the CODEC
3
c
are connected to the CPU
3
e
via a common bus
3
d.
The CPU
3
e
controls the overall operations of the facsimile communication apparatus
10
A. A memory
3
f
and a LAN control circuit
3
g
are also connected to the common bus
3
d.
The memory
3
f
temporarily stores digitized information prior to transmitting the digitized information. The LAN control circuit
3
g
performs data transfer in a packet format to and from another facsimile communication apparatus
10
B via the LAN
4
.
The facsimile machine
1
of
FIG. 1
is connected to the facsimile machine
7
via the telephone line
2
, the facsimile communication apparatus
10
A, the LAN
4
, the facsimile communication apparatus
10
B, and the telephone line
6
, in that order. If pixel information is transmitted from the facsimile machine
1
a
of
FIG. 2
to the facsimile machine
7
, the pixel data read by the facsimile machine
1
a
from the original document is encoded according to a prescribed coding rule. The encoded pixel data is modulated by, for example, a 9600 bps MODEM installed in the facsimile machine
1
a
to produce an analog signal in the voice frequency band. The analog signal is transmitted to the facsimile communication apparatus
10
A through the telephone line
2
a.
The CODEC
3
c
of the facsimile communication apparatus
10
A samples the analog signal supplied via the telephone line
2
a
based on a sampling signal of, for example, 8 KHz, and converts the sampled analog signal into an 8-bit digital signal for each sampling.
Thus, the analog signal is converted into a 64 Kbps digital signal by the CODEC
3
c,
which is then read by the CPU
3
e
via the common bus
3
d.
The CPU
3
e
edits the digital signal into a packet data of a predetermined size, and temporarily stores the packet data in the memory
3
f.
The packet data stored in the memory
3
f
is read out by the LAN control circuit
3
g,
and transmitted to the receiving side facsimile communication apparatus
10
B via the LAN
4
. In the facsimile communication apparatus
10
B, the packet data received from the LAN control circuit
3
g
is temporarily stored in a memory. Then, the stored data is read out by a CPU corresponding to the CPU
3
e,
and supplied to a CODEC corresponding to the CODEC
3
c,
which converts the data into an analog signal and outputs the analog signal to the facsimile machine
7
via the telephone network
6
. Thus, the analog signal transmitted from the facsimile machine
1
a
is converted into a digital signal by the CODEC
3
c
of the facsimile communication apparatus
10
A, and transferred as a packet data to the receiving side facsimile communication apparatus
10
B via the LAN
4
.
However, the conventional facsimile communication system has several problems.
Because the transfer path of the LAN
4
is divided into a plurality of channels in order to transfer the data in a packet format, the transfer delay time of the packet data is not constant. In addition, if the traffic of the LAN
4
is heavy, the packet data may be lost half way through the transmission path. For these reasons, the analog signals which are being decoded by the CODEC
3
c
of the receiving side facsimile communication apparatus
10
B may sometimes be interrupted and, as a result, wrong data is received by the receiving side facsimile machine
7
.
Furthermore, although the inherent data transfer rate between the facsimiles machines
1
a
and
7
is, for example, 9600 bps, the data is transferred at 64 Kbps in the LAN
4
, which is inefficient from the standpoint of data transfer capacity.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the object of the invention is to overcome the problems in the prior art, and to provide a facsimile communication system that can perform facsimile communication in an efficient manner from the standpoint of data transfer capacity with little transfer errors.
In order to achieve the object, in the first aspect of the invention, a facsimile communication apparatus comprises: facsimile procedure controller that receives and transmits control information and pixel information from and to facsimile machines connected to the facsimile communication apparatus according to a predetermined procedure; a first information converter that converts the control information and the pixel information received from the facsimile machines into a control packet signal and a pixel packet signal of predetermined formats; data transmitter/receiver that transmits the control packet signal and the pixel packet signal produced by the first information converter via a data communication network, and that receives a control packet signal and a pixel packet signal transmitted via the data communication network; and a second information converter that converts the control packet signal and the pixel packet signal received by the data transmitter/receiver into control information and pixel information which are to be output to a receiving side facsimile machine. The facsimile communication apparatus may further comprise a memory which stores a predetermined amount of pixel packet signals received by the data transmitter/receiver and which outputs the stored signals to the second information converter w

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