Patent ID: 6937709

Claim:
A method of fax transmission over a fax relay network that includes at least an analog portion and a digital portion of the fax relay network, the method comprising: receiving, at a first relay data gateway that communicatively connects a sending fax machine to the digital portion of the fax relay network, image data from the sending fax machine; converting the image data into digital data to be sent over the digital portion of the fax relay network; storing the digitized image data in a buffer at the first relay data gateway; determining an amount of data stored in the buffer at the first relay data gateway; and if the determination made of the amount of data stored in the buffer is that the amount of data stored in the buffer is greater than a particular amount of data, sending a data resend signal to the sending fax machine; outputting the digitized image data in accordance with a data rate of the digital portion of the fax relay network, the digitized image data being received by a second relay data gateway on the digital portion of the fax relay network, the second relay data gateway communicatively connecting a receiving fax machine to the digital portion of the fax relay network; wherein the receiving fax machine operates in an error correction mode in which received data is requested to be resent to the receiving fax machine if errors are detected in the received data.