Voice/fax digitizing rate negotiation for switched connection in a network environment

A method of providing for calls from a calling station to a called station, including the steps of:

• providing at the calling station a call request packet including the address of the called station and an information digitizing rate of the calling station,
• sending the call request packet from the calling station to the called station,
• receiving at the called station from the calling station the call request packet provided at the calling station including the information digitizing rate of the calling station, and
• adopting at the called station the information digitizing rate of the calling station if such information digitizing rate is less than or equal to an information digitizing rate of the called station and otherwise adopting the information digitizing rate of the called station,
• transmitting from the called station to the calling station the information digitizing rate adopted by the called station,
• selecting at the calling station the information digitizing rate of the calling station when the calling station determines that its information rate is less than or equal to the information digitizing rate adopted by the called station, and
• providing for a compression of the information sent from the calling station to the called station, after the selection of the information digitizing rate by the calling station, by an amount dependent upon the information digitizing rate selected by the calling station.

A method at a called station of receiving calls from a calling station, including the steps of:

• receiving from the calling station a call request packet including the address of the called station and an information digitizing rate of the calling station,
• determining the information digitizing rate of the calling station,
• selecting the information digitizing rate of the called station if the information digitizing rate of the called station is less than or equal to the information digitizing rate of the calling station and otherwise selecting the information digitizing rate of the calling station,
• sending to the calling station in a call request response packet the information digitizing rate selected by the called station,
• receiving, at the information digitizing rate thereafter selected by the calling station when the calling station determines that the information digitizing rate of the calling station is less than or equal to the information digitizing rate selected by the called station, the information sent by the calling station to the called station, and
• decompressing the information sent by the calling station to the called station by an amount dependent upon the information digitizing rate selected by the calling station.

A method at a called station of receiving calls from a calling station, including the steps of:

• receiving from the calling station a call request packet including the addresses of the called station and the calling station and an information digitizing rate of the calling station,
• selecting an information digitizing rate of the called station if the information digitizing rate of the called station is less than or equal to the information digitizing rate of the calling station and otherwise selecting the information digitizing rate of the calling station,
• sending to the calling station in a call request response packet the information digitizing rate selected by the called station,
• thereafter receiving information from the calling station at the information digitizing rate selected by the calling station when the calling station determines that the information digitizing rate of the calling station is less than or equal to the information digitizing rate selected by the called station, and
• decompressing the received information by an amount dependent upon the information digitizing rate selected by the calling station.

A method at a calling station of providing calls to a called station, including the steps of:

• providing a call request packet including the addresses of the calling station and the called station and an information digitizing rate of the calling station,
• sending the call request packet to the called station,
• receiving from the called station a call request response packet including the addresses of the calling station and the called station and an information digitizing rate adopted by the called station,
• selecting at the calling station the information digitizing rate of the calling station if this information digitizing rate is less than or equal to the information digitizing rate adopted by the called station and otherwise selecting the information digitizing rate adopted by the called station, and
• sending packets of information from the calling station to the called station at the information digitizing rate selected by the calling station, the information in the packets having an amount of compression dependent upon the information digitizing rate selected by the calling station.