Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Communication
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-06
2003-02-11
Nguyen, Madeleine (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Communication
C358S402000, C358S407000, C358S442000, C379S100010, C379S100060
Reexamination Certificate
active
06519051
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a FAX-through data network and a remote access appliance control apparatus and method. In particular, the invention utilizes a data network to transfer a FAX data packet or an appliance control packet to a FAX machine or an appliance, respectively. The present invention discovers the capability to share an internet protocol (IP) address of a LAN end station and the ability to intercept network data packets transmitted to the LAN end station in order to identify a FAX data packet or an appliance control packet.
BACKGROUND
A FAX transmission using the public switched telephone network (PSTN) is processed with the same methodology as a voice telephone connection. To transfer a document via FAX, the transmitting FAX machine starts up a connection request by dialing a receiving party's telephone number. The PSTN acts both as a destination locator and a channel provider with two tasks. First, the PSTN will find the destination FAX location and alert the receiving FAX to answer the transmission request. Second, the PSTN will make a channel connection between the transmitting FAX and the receiving FAX.
As depicted in
FIG. 1
, there is no difference to the PSTN whether handling a FAX or a voice telephone connection. Due to the fact that a real time response in a conversation between two parties is required, the cost of the connection is measured by the duration of the connection and the distance between the two parties. This cost measurement is set mostly because a voice conversation requires a real time response since the human ear and brain can only tolerate a small amount of latency.
This cost measurement is, however, inappropriate for FAX transmissions since a real time response, measured in 0.1 seconds of time, is not required. Furthermore, the cost measurement of the duration of the connection is not particularly appropriate. A human conversation always exchanges information at a constant rate. Therefore, the conversation always takes the same amount of time to get a message across. In other words, the connection time equals the amount of information exchanged. On the other hand, a FAX communication can utilize a faster data rate than the data rate used by voice communications (when channel bandwidth is available) or slow down the data rate when channel traffic is congested. In addition, a latency in the response time on the order of one or more minutes is tolerable for FAX transmissions. As such, a correct method for measuring the cost of FAX communication is a measurement of the transferred data size instead of the call duration, provided the channel bandwidth is scalable. In summary, FAX customers pay expensive PSTN toll charges for a service which is not needed.
In recent years, the bandwidth of data network connections between two end user computers or two end station computers has expanded to meet the data transfer requirements discussed above. These data networks are readily available in every trade industry and business. Data networks have imposed larger latency compared to the PSTN, but it is acceptable when dealing with FAX transmissions. In addition, the cost of the data transfer is measured by the size of the exchanged information in many cases. For example, a 56K modem connection can transfer 56 Kbits of information per second (560K bit per 10 second or 201,600 Kbit per hour) free of charge in a global data network, the Internet. In fact, other data network connection technologies can provide even higher bandwidth. Consequently, since the average size of a FAX communication is about 480K, the cost of a FAX transmission over a data network is negligible (free of charge).
Based on the argument described above, FAX services utilizing data networks should be quite common. In reality, there are very few such deployments. The reason is due to the fact that data networks were not fully deployed until recently. Moreover, FAX machines based on the PSTN have dominated the market for more than three decades. FAX equipment vendors have no incentive to move over to data networks because the cost of FAX transmissions are paid by the end user, not by the equipment vendor.
As depicted in
FIG. 2
, a data network topology is comprised of multiple local area networks (LAN) connect together by a giant, a wide area network (WAN), the Internet. Within a LAN, there are multiple End stations connected thereto. Each end station is assigned a unique identification number referred to as its Internet Address or the IP address. Any data exchanged between two parties will need to identify the destination or end station location by its corresponding IP address. The connection between the LAN and the WAN is separated by a Router, which will relay the data to the WAN if the destination IP address is not within the LAN.
The data network also uses a session port to identify the type of application. There are “well known” session port numbers which are fixed in the Internet to represent application flow. For example, the hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) uses session port
80
, while electronic mail (E-Mail) uses session port
110
. On the other hand, there are a few unassigned session ports available for individual applications. Since there are many application communications in the data network, a session port attached to a transmitting data package in the network will enable the receiving party to identify and process the data package in order to collect the information in the data package.
FIG. 3
depicts one technique for utilizing a data network in the FAX transmission process. This type of service establishes a central FAX-network server which connects one end to the PSTN and the other end to the data network. Each receiving customer will be given a unique PSTN telephone number for the FAX-network server to identify the destination. Users are also required to have an E-Mail address in order to receive the electronic form of the FAX transmission which is sent through the unique PSTN number.
The transmitting party is required to make a PSTN call to the central FAX-network server. Although, the dialed PSTN number is used to uniquely identify the FAX receiver, the FAX number is physically connected to central FAX-server through the PSTN network which is similar to a corporation direct line. The FAX-network server will then receive the FAX data and put it in a temporary storage. The transmitting party performs the same operations as a normal call through the PSTN since it dials and faxes through a regular telephone number.
The FAX-network server perform two tasks. First, it identifies the receiving PSTN number and maps it to the E-Mail address of the receiving party. Then, it retrieves the stored FAX data, repackages the data into a data network format and sends the data through the data network to the individual E-Mail address. The receiving party can retrieve the E-Mail and either view the FAX document in an electronic format or as the printer's printout.
The problem with this method is that it requires the transmitting party to place a PSTN toll call to the central FAX-network server. Therefore the toll cost for the call is not reduced if the distance between the sender and the receiver is shorter than the distance between the sender and the central server. Moreover, this method provides only a conversion from the FAX information to the electronic format without a reduction in cost. In addition, this technique does not provide a good solution for receiving a FAX from a heritage FAX machine.
FIG. 4
depicts an additional FAX system which utilizes a data network to deliver a FAX communication. This method requires the transmitting FAX to place a PSTN call to its local FAX-network server, similar to the previous method. However, instead of using a central FAX-network server to receive the incoming FAX communication, this method sets up multiple regional FAX-network servers to reduce the long distance telephone toll charge. The local or regional FAX-network server will receive and store the FAX communication in a temporary data buf
Sern Pei
Wu Chun-Chu Archie
Ananian R. Michael
Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Nguyen Madeleine
Pokrzywa Joseph R.
Shinestar LLC
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