Facsimile telecommunications system and method
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorBahram Sadr-Salek
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A combined fax broadcast and fax-on-demand system having a number of facsimile enabled PC units connected to a server on a LAN network for storing fax documents. Each PC unit includes a fax card for performing telephony and fax functions on a channels connectable to respective telephone lines in a telephone network. Each one of the channels is configurable as an incoming or outgoing channel and the ratio of incoming and outgoing channels can be changed to reflect the number of fax broadcast documents scheduled for broadcast.
Claims12
A fax broadcast and fax-on-demand system comprising:
- a central fax storage and control means:
- a plurality of fax servers, connected in a computer network to the central fax storage and control means, each fax server for performing telephony and fax functions on a plurality of fax channels connectable to telephone lines in a telephone network, each fax server having local storage means for storing documents and fax information, each fax server adapted to perform telephony and fax functions on each of their respective fax channels;
- configuration means for designating each fax channel as an incoming or outgoing fax channel by storing a record of said designation;
- broadcast means for associating a document and a subscriber fax number and further associating said document and number with a outgoing fax channel, and sending a copy of said document, fax number and a fax channel reference to the local storage means of the fax server having that fax channel;
- and fax-on-demand means for listening for calls on the incoming fax channels, answering a call from a subscriber, identifying the subscriber and the document required by the subscriber, associating said document and subscriber number with an outgoing fax channel, and sending said document, fax number and fax channel reference to the local storage means of the fax server having that fax channel, and initiating transmit of the document to the subscriber.
A fax broadcast and fax-on-demand system having:
- a plurality of facsimile servers connected to a control unit each facsimile unit
- for performing telephony and fax functions on a plurality of channels connectable to telephone lines in a telephone network, each of said channels being configurable as an incoming or outgoing channel, each fax server having a local storage means for storing one or more documents prior to transmission on an outgoing channel or for storing one or more documents received on an incoming channel;
- said control unit comprising:
- main storage means for storing a plurality of facsimile documents, a plurality of subscriber names, and associated facsimile numbers, a broadcast schedule associating certain documents for broadcast to certain subscribers, and a channel configuration table identifying which channels are configured as incoming channels for fax-on-demand and outgoing channels for fax broadcast;
- configuration means for configuring the channels and for storing a record of said configuration in said channel configuration table;
- broadcast means for associating a document and a subscriber fax number from the broadcast schedule and further associating said document and number with an outgoing channel identified from the channel configuration table, and sending said document, fax number and a channel reference to the fax server having that channel;
- fax-on-demand means for receiving a call from a subscriber on an incoming channel, identifying the subscriber and the document required by the subscriber, and initiating broadcast of the document to the subscriber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.