Patent ID: 7002972

Claim:
A facsimile communication system comprising: a facsimile device on the sender side; a gateway device on a sender side connectable through a telephone line to said facsimile device; a gateway device on a receiver side connectable to said gateway device on the sender side through a communication line to which a protocol being different from that applied to said telephone line is applied; a facsimile device on the receiver side connectable to said gateway device on the receiver side through the telephone line to which the same protocol as applied to said telephone line is applied; and whereby said gateway device on the receiver side is provided with memory, to store data transferred from said gateway device on the sender side, used when said data is transmitted from said facsimile device on the sender side through both said gateway devices to said facsimile device on the receiver side, a monitoring circuit to monitor accumulated amounts of said data to be stored in said memory and an accumulated data amount calculating circuit operated to store, in said memory, amounts of data required to prevent communication failures between said gateway device on the receiver side and said facsimile device on the receiver side even when delays in communications develop prior to the start of transmission of said data from said gateway device on the receiver side to said facsimile device on the receiver side and operated to calculate said required amounts of data, and said gateway device on the receiver side is operated to start the transmission of said data to said facsimile device on the receiver side when said accumulated amounts of data to be monitored by said accumulated amount data calculating circuit exceed said required amounts of data; wherein said gateway device on the receiver side calculates delays in communications in said communication line for every communication prior to the receipt of said data from said gateway device on the sender side and, when said gateway device on the receiver side judges that said communication failures may occur due to said calculated delays in communications, stores said required amounts of data in said memory based on said calculated delays in communications.