Patent ID: RE42995

Claim:
A fax communication system for communicating fax information between at least two fax devices, through a packet switching network and from one point of the network to another point using any fax relay protocol adopted as a standard by the industry, each fax device including a data pump for modulating and demodulating fax information and a protocol subsystem for encoding and decoding the modulated fax information comprising: multiple access servers including a sending access server, coupled to a sending fax device, for receiving modulated fax information therefrom, in packet form, for transmission thereof through the packet switching network to a receiving fax device, said sending access server including a data pump for demodulating the received modulated fax information prior to transmission thereof; and only one fax relay server, coupled to said multiple access servers, for receiving the demodulated fax information and decoding the same, said multiple access servers further including a receiving access server, coupled to the receiving fax device, for receiving the decoded fax information and re-modulating the same prior to transmission thereof to the receiving fax device, said fax relay sewer responsive to packets of fax information in accordance with the T.38 protocol and further operative to convert the T.38 packets of fax information to T.30 packets of information, the T.30 packets of information including T.4/T.6 information and the fax relay further operative to decode the T.4/T.6 information, wherein the functions of a fax device transmitting fax information through a packet switching network environment is distributed to multiple access servers and only one fax relay server within the network.