What is claimed is:
1. An apparatus of ascertaining a transmission result for an internet fax comprising:
a message producing module producing a transmission message for transmission fax data and a return message ascertaining a transmission result of received fax data;
a message adding module adding the produced transmission message to control information of the fax data;
a message separating module separating the return message from the control information of the received fax data;
a result transmitting module transmitting transmission information and the transmission result of the transmission fax data; and
a message return module transmitting the return message including receive information provided by a receive party fax machine and a receive party gateway to a transmission party fax machine.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transmission message and return message include a transmission party fax number region, receive party fax number region, loss packet count region, fax transmission time region, message identifier region, and transmission state region, respectively.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the regions of the messages are increased or decreased by a user’s demand.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is located in the transmission party gateway.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is located outside the transmission party gateway.
6. An internet fax system comprising:
a fax machine;
a transmission result ascertaining module producing a transmission message used for ascertaining a transmission result on a basis of transmission information and a return message used for ascertaining the transmission result on a basis of receive information; and
a gateway transmitting the transmission message to a receive party through the internet network from the fax machine when transmitting and the return message and fax data from a transmission party to the fax machine when receiving.
7. The internet fax system of claim 6, the gateway comprising:
a pulse code modulation(PCM) interface part;
a fax modem part inputting PCM fax data transmitted from a fax machine through the PCM interface part and converting the PCM data into a form proper for a transmission apparatus on a basis of a presently-established modulation mode;
a fax protocol part storing packets in a buffer in receiving order, the fax protocol part carrying out a protocol of arranging an order of the stored packets, the fax protocol part compensating lost packets and timing;
a fax network driving part constructing fax data for transmission by adding contents of the transmission message produced by the transmission result ascertaining module to control information of the transmission fax data transmitted from the fax protocol processing part and then disassembling the fax data into packets; and
a packet protocol processing part outputting the packets to the internet network.
8. The internet fax system of claim 7, wherein the fax network driving part includes a memory storing a corresponding message identifier when the fax packets are outputted to the internet network through the packet protocol processing part.
9. The internet fax system of claim 7, wherein the fax modem part has a function of detecting transmission errors by CRC(cyclic redundancy check).
10. The internet fax system of claim 7, wherein the fax modem part, in order to convert the PCM fax data having been inputted from the PCM interface part into a proper form for a transmission device, supports a V.21 interface for modulating and demodulating binary signals of 300 bps, a V.27 interface for modulating and demodulating high speed data of 24004800 bps, a V.29 interface for modulating and demodulating high speed data of 72009600 bps, a V.17 interface for modulating and demodulating binary signals of 720096001200014400 bps, and a V.33 interface for modulating and demodulating binary signals of 1200014400 bps.
11. The internet fax system of claim 7, wherein the fax protocol processing part operates to prevent time-out due to other flags While a local fax is waiting a response and transmits CRF(command repeat frame) again when time-out occurs due to the absence of the response from a remote fax.
12. In a network including a transmission party fax machine, a transmission party gateway, a receive party gateway, and a receive party fax machine, a method of running an internet fax network comprising the steps of:
transmitting fax data from the transmission party fax machine to the transmission party gateway;
producing a transmission message containing transmission information in the transmission party gateway;
transmitting the transmission message with the fax data to the receive party gateway;
interpreting the transmission message by the receive party gateway;
changing a transmission fax number and a receive fax number in the transmission message;
recording a loss packet count of the received fax data in the transmission message;
transmitting the received fax data from the receive party gateway to the receive party fax machine and recording a fax receive time in the transmission message;
producing a return message finally by ascertaining a trans mission result of the fax data from the receive party fax machine by the receive party gateway and by recording the transmission result in the transmission message;
transmitting the return message from the receive party gateway o the transmission party gateway;
interpreting the return message by the transmission party gateway; and
transmitting a result of the interpretation to the transmission party fax machine.
13. The method of claim 12, the step of interpreting the return message comprising the steps of:
storing the message identifier of he transmission message in a memory of the transmission party gateway when the fax data are transmitted from he transmission party gateway to the receive party gateway;
comparing in the transmission party gateway a message identifier included in the return message from the receive party gateway to the message identifier stored in the memory; and
ascertaining whether the two messages are identical by a result of the comparison.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the transmission message is included in control information of the fax data for transmission and then outputted to the internet network by being disassemble into packet data.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the return message is included in control information from the receive party gateway and then outputted to the internet network by being disassemble into packet data.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein the transmission message and return message include a transmission party fax number region, receive party fax number region, loss packet count region, fax transmission time region, message identifier region, and transmission state region, respectively.
17. A message format for an internet fax comprising:
a region in which a transmission party number is recorded;
a region in which a receive party number is recorded;
a region in which a transmission time for transmitting fax data from the receive party gateway to a receive party fax machine is recorded;
a region in which a fax receive time for receiving the fax data in the receive party gateway is recorded;
a region in which a characteristic value assigned for discerning whether the message is the transmission message or return message is recorded; and
a region in which a final result for transmission success of failure of the fax data is recorded.
18. The message format for an internet fax of claim 17, wherein null bits are inserted in the loss packet count region, fax receive time region, and transmission state region when the message format is a message for transmission.
19. The message format for an internet fax of claim 17, wherein a receive party fax machine number and a transmission party fax machine number are stored practically in the transmission fax number region and the receive fax number region, respectively when the message format is a return message.
20. The message format for an internet fax of claim 17, wherein the message identifier practically includes an identifier of a gateway of a party transmitting the message and species of the message.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A process for controlling a switched full-duplex Ethernet type communication network including at least one source subscriber equipment and at least one destination subscriber equipment connected to each other through at least a physical link through at least one switch and through at least one virtual link which is a conceptual representation of a link from a source equipment to at least one destination equipment, the process comprising:
in a transmission service, allowing an application to access virtual links in transmission, the transmission service configured to multiplex virtual links to a physical link through an Ethernet interface;
for each virtual link, sending packets as a function of passband allocated to the respective virtual link, the passband of a virtual link being substantially equal to: (packet size)(minimum inter-packet time), the sum of passbands of the virtual links in transmission being less than about 5 Mbitss;
checking time characteristics of the packets in a passband protection service in the switch, for each incoming virtual link; and
destroying the packets if allowable characteristics are exceeded, to prevent a failure in a transmitter or a virtual link from compromising traffic in other virtual links leaving the switch.
2. The process according to claim 1, further comprising, in a reception service, decoding packets, checking that a format of the decoded packets is correct, and making useful data available to applications.
3. The process according to claim 1, wherein a packet is sent and received on two virtual links, in a network redundancy service at subscriber level, to implement network redundancy, that is transparent for applications to avoid problems caused by failure of a switch or an interface.
4. The process according to claim 1, further comprising performing a sampling service in a destination equipment that only presents a last received value to a user, and wherein the last received value is systematically overwritten by a new received packet.
5. The process according to claim 1, further comprising performing a queuing service in a destination equipment that presents all data that the destination equipment receives to the user, the queuing service enabling:
sending information that an addressee does not want to lose; and
sending information larger than a maximum packet size of the virtual link, the transmission service then breaking down the data into packets, the reception service reformatting the data to make reformatted data available to the receiving application.
6. The process according to claim 1, further comprising performing a file transfer source in which a data file is transferred, the transmission service breaking the data file down into packets that are then transmitted sequentially, the reception service rebuilding the data file.
7. The process according to claim 1, wherein a passband and an inter-packet time are assigned for each virtual link.
8. The process according to claim 7, further comprising in a subscriber in reception, refining a selection of packets on a same virtual link, by using network addressing information contained in the packet.
9. The process according to claim 8, further comprising achieving data integrity on each packet by a CRC that makes a calculation to validate data transmitted in the packet, checking each packet at each network equipment input, and destroying all bad packets.
10. The process according to claim 1, wherein the allowable characteristics are time characteristics of said packet in each incoming virtual link.