Abstract:
A fax processing system improving the speed and reliability of fax transmissions by providing a new method of transmitting facsimile images, by encoding fax images with an embedded non-facsimile-communication-protocol/non-facsimile-image digital data bit signal using a fax ATA adapter that is connected to a facsimile device, where the signal bit is recognized by fax software at a fax service such that the original image data is transferred to the fax service via a secure link over a data communications network with notification by the fax service software.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    The present application claims the benefit of the U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/891,341, filed on Oct 15, 2013 and entitled “System and Method for Guaranteed High Speed Fax Delivery” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety; the U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/927,716, filed on Jan 15, 2014 and entitled “System and Method for Guaranteed High Speed Fax Delivery” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/927,716, filed on Oct 15, 2013 and entitled “System and Method for Guaranteed High Speed Fax Delivery With Fax Adapter” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    The electronic transmission of documents by way of fax systems continues to be commonplace and, often, an essential component of many business activities. With the emergence of email and mobile computing devices in the business environment, many predicted the demise of fax, however fax continues to thrive and grow as it is the only means of communication to the existing base of fax machines, can print out paper, and offers compliance to many financial and regulatory requirements. 
         [0003]    With the growth of VoIP (Voice over Internet), fax transmissions designed for the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) have more difficulty completing transmissions and require several retries to complete. Further, as the number of pages increase, the chances of successful transmissions decrease. Also, there is no page counting system in fax, so that a 100 page fax that cannot complete after 90 pages will start anew at page 1 the next attempt. And finally, that 100 page fax may take as long as an hour or more of a phone call to complete the transmission. 
         [0004]    Facsimile (“fax” or “faxing”) has been an important part of business communications for over 20 years. It is a secure, and reliable way to send a document from one place to another and provides a confirmation of receipt. There have been few changes to the actual fax transmissions or speed since the early 1990&#39;s. With the growth of VoIP and the growth of fax, more problems are introduced to the fax process such as dropped calls, incomplete faxes, and longer documents that can take long periods of time sending. 
         [0005]    Embodiments of the present inventive subject matter overcomes problems in the current fax system and in prior art of fax systems by using the fax transmission as a signal to securely stream the fax image data via the internet and secure link to a secure web server, thus giving a 100% delivery guarantee, and greatly reducing the transmission time. Embodiments of the present inventive subject matter are both novel in it&#39;s approach to increase fax speed and reliability, and non-obvious in it&#39;s method and approach. 
         [0006]    Non-facsimile-communication-protocol/non-facsimile-image digital data may be reproduced by a non-featured facsimile machine, but the non-facsimile-communication-protocol/non-facsimile-image digital data will be rendered in a manner that does not produce intelligible human-readable information to the recipient. 
         [0007]    Non-facsimile-communication-protocol/non-facsimile-image digital data is also multi-bit digital data representing non-facsimile-communication-protocol information wherein facsimile-communication-protocol information is signals or instructions to create/facilitate a communication channel between a transmitting device and a receiving device. 
         [0008]    In summary, non-facsimile-communication-protocol/non-facsimile-image digital data is machine readable data that is transmitted in addition to conventional facsimile data wherein if the non-facsimile-communication-protocol/non-facsimile-image digital data is reproduced by the receiving facsimile machine, the non-facsimile-communication-protocol/non-facsimile-image digital data does not produce intelligible human-readable information as the receiving facsimile machine would render the concurrently transmitted conventional facsimile data. 
         [0009]    Definition of Terms 
         [0010]    The following term definitions are provided to assist in conveying an understanding of the various exemplary embodiments and features disclosed herein. The terms “facsimile” and “fax” shall be used interchangeably and refer to data that is transmitted on the protocol generically known as “T.30”. 
         [0011]    Telephony: The transmission of audio signals on a PSTN (“Packet Switched Telephony Network”) according to generally accepted protocols. 
         [0012]    T.30: The protocol for the transmission of facsimile documents that conform to the “Group-3” protocol. The Group 3 protocol is defined by the ITU, International Telecommunications Union 
         [0013]    PSTN: The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the network of the world&#39;s public circuit-switched telephone networks. 
         [0014]    ANI: Automatic Number Identification 
         [0015]    CSID: Customer Subscriber ID 
         [0016]    Non Standard Capabilities: Refers to the NSF (Non Standard Facilities), NSC (Non Standard Facilities Command), and NSS (Non Standard Facilities Set-up) 
         [0017]    ATA: Analog Telephone Adapter, a device that interfaces a telephone handset or facsimile machine with an Ethernet data communications (internet) connection 
         [0018]    Facsimile Information Fields (FIF): Information fields of variable length that contain specific information for the control and message interchange between two facsimile terminals. 
         [0019]    Several different telephone line modulation techniques are used by fax machines. They are negotiated during the fax-modem handshake, and the fax devices will use the highest data rate that both fax devices support, usually a minimum of 14.4 kbit/s for Group 3 fax. 
         [0020]    V.27: 2400 and 4800 bits/second 
         [0021]    V.29: 4800, 7200, and 9600 bits/second 
         [0022]    V.17: 7200, 9600, 12,200, and 14,400 bits/second 
         [0023]    V.34bis: 28,800 and 33,600 bits/second 
         [0024]    Data Communications Speeds: refers to data rate transfer speeds found on wired or wireless data network connections. There is a large range of available speeds which can go to 10 Mbps (megabits/second) or much higher, versus fax connection speeds as described above. 
         [0025]    Transport Layer Protocols refer to the OSI model level 4 of protocols including but not limited to TCP and UDP. 
         [0026]    Application Layer Protocols refer to the OSI model level 7 protocols including but not limited to HTTP, RTP, TFSP, FTP. 
         [0027]    Internet Layer Protocols refer to the internet internetwork protocols including but not limited to IP, IPv4, IPv6, IPsec. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0028]    The present inventive subject matter is intended to provide a system and method of ultra high speed fax with guaranteed and secure confirmation and delivery. 
         [0029]    One object is to re-route fax calls initiated from any fax machine, through a fax ATA adapter, over a secure internet link using Internet protocols, in order to provide a 100% guarantee that the originating facsimile image will be delivered. 
         [0030]    Another object is to encode the first page of a fax image with a code of bits that are recognized by a software decoder program at the fax service provider or fax server recipient. The software decoder program has the capability to recognize the encoded bits in the image, and also has the capability to recognize in the T.30 header, the Non Standard Capabilities codes and Facsimile Information Field, Customer Subscriber Identification (“CSID”), and from the telecommunications system, the phone number from the originating device via Automatic Number Identification (“ANI”) or Caller Identification (“Caller ID”) and the time of the originating facsimile call. When the software decoder program recognizes such above described codes, the software confirms that the originating fax call comes from a fax ATA adapter installed and operating on the originating facsimile machine or fax server, the software application signals the fax ATA adapter with an acknowledgement. After the acknowledgement signal, the fax ATA adapter uses the T.30 fax protocol to set the transmission speed to any of the desired T.30 supported modem speeds; the object of setting the speed to a slower speed is to keep the transmission channel open while the fax program performs its other intended function. 
         [0031]    Another object is the fax software decoder software sets up a secure link to the fax service server and notifies the fax ATA adapter of the address of the secure link. The fax ATA adapter then proceeds to transfer the bytes of the facsimile image data via any internet transport layer, application layer, or internet layer protocols to the designated web server. Encryption may or may not be used. The fax transmission is terminated after the receiving server issues a confirmation to the fax ATA adapter that the facsimile image data was received. Thus, the original fax image was sent to an accessible server at internet speeds rather than at traditional telephony speeds, and the original fax image is sent with a guarantee of delivery, whereas facsimile transmissions typically experience a 10%-30% failure rate that necessitate retrying the fax transmission a second or third time. 
         [0032]    Another object is to reduce the telephony and computing resources used by the fax service by streaming facsimile image data to the fax server at internet speeds. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0033]    The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the embodiments of the present inventive subject matter are further described in the detailed description which follows, with reference to the drawings by way of non-limiting exemplary embodiments of the present inventive subject matter, wherein like reference numerals represent similar parts of the present inventive subject matter throughout the several views and wherein: 
           [0034]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing the process of sending a fax from the originating fax system to the destination location over the internet. 
           [0035]      FIG. 2  is a diagram showing the originating fax server with a standard fax call connection to a remote service provider. 
           [0036]      FIG. 3  is a diagram showing the originating fax server with a standard fax call connection to a remote service provider, with instruction sent from the software decoder program to slow down the facsimile transmission speed. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0037]    Although the detailed description herein contains many specifics for the purposes of illustration, anyone of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many variations and alterations to the following details are within the scope of the embodiments described herein. Thus, the following illustrative embodiments are set forth without any loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the claimed inventive subject matter. 
         [0038]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the inventive subject matter  100 . The Fax ATA adapter  101  makes the phone call  102  and detects if a fax decoder program is present  104  on the receiving end. The service provider recognizes the encoded bits in the image  105 , sets up a secure IP link  106 , and sets the connection to a very slow speed  107 . The document is sent to the service provider over the high speed internet connection  108 , is completed  110 , at which time a T.30 fax confirmation  109  is sent back to the Fax ATA adapter. The document is then forwarded on from the service provider to the intended recipient  111 . 
         [0039]      FIG. 2  is a diagram of the fax delivery system  300 . The sender&#39;s fax originates from paper that is converted to a facsimile image by a facsimile machine  301 , or computer based file that is converted to a facsimile image data by a fax program that resides inside the fax ATA adapter with Ethernet connection  307 . 
         [0040]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2  the fax ATA adapter initiates a call  102  to a receiving fax system. If the receiving fax system is a standard fax machine, or a fax service that does not have the driver present, then the fax is transmitted as a normal T.30 fax  103  if connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or T.38 fax  304  if connected to a data communications network such as the internet. 
         [0041]    The sender&#39;s fax ATA adapter  402  encodes hidden bits  308  into the fax image data,  302 . If the fax call is answered by any fax service, such as a public or private service provider, or any customer owned fax system with a compatible fax decoder program  104 , the service provider host  305  recognizes the embedded bits in the image  105 , then the encoded bits in the fax image will be authenticated,  303  so that the receiving fax program will send a IP (internet protocol) link to the sending fax ATA adapter  106 . The hidden bits also signal the software decoder program the number of bytes that are contained in the image data. 
         [0042]    In addition, the sending fax ATA adapter may send a message to the receiving decoder program using the CSID or Non Standard Capabilities fields or Fax Information Field of the T.30 protocol to signal the decoder program to perform the functions as if there were bits encoded in the facsimile image. 
         [0043]    Further, the fax ATA adapter has the capability to and may calculate a checksum on the facsimile image data using one or more of the number of bytes of the image data, the number of pages of the image data, a unique identifier of the image data and a unique identifier of the software encoder program. The software decoder program also has the capability and may calculate a checksum based on the same criteria such that the checksum on the same facsimile image data and same intended destination will match and may be used for future validation of the facsimile image data. 
         [0044]      FIG. 3  is a diagram of the fax delivery system showing how the speed of the fax is slowed down and the fax is delivered over a data communications link  400 . At this point, the fax transmission call is set to a slower speed  107  in  FIGS. 1 and 405  in  FIG. 3 . Group III fax speeds are typically either sent at V.17 (9600 bps to 14.4 bps) or V.34 (up to 33.6 bps), however, operating at the higher speeds increases the error rate of facsimile transmissions, and increases the potential for a failed transmission. Setting the modem transmission speed to a much slower speed helps ensure that the communication link stays open and active while the streaming portion of the fax image is processed. 
         [0045]    After the secure IP link  404  is received by the fax ATA adapter, the image data is then streamed via the data communications (Internet) link to the provided server address using any available Transport Layer, Application Layer, or Internet Layer Protocols,  302  in  FIGS. 2 and 402  in  FIG. 3 . 
         [0046]    The fax image data is thus streamed to the destination server at the service provider or network fax server at the high speed of the data communications network,  108  in  FIGS. 1 and 402  in  FIG. 3  rather than at the ITU specified modem speeds; this has the novel advantages of transmitting multi-page faxes at much faster speeds than previously possible as well as reducing network congestion of limited resources to process traditional voice or fax modem calls (transmissions). 
         [0047]    When the fax image data is streamed to the designated secure location, the software decoder program of the receiving system recognizes the completion of the transmission  110  by having the number of expected bytes received as notified by the software encoder program of the sender, and the document is considered complete  110 , and received at the service provider ready to forward  111 , to the final destination. The software decoder program then proceeds to send a T.30 confirmation signal  109 , over the still open standard facsimile transmission link with the fax ATA adapter which terminates the call. The software encoder program at this point may inform and third party software application that the fax transaction is confirmed and complete. Note that at the time of confirmation, the image has already been received at the fax service or fax server location, and the confirmation time and date stamp are officially recorded in the facsimile transmission and serves as legal proof that the facsimile document was sent.