Selective fax routing through the internet
First Claim
1. An extended service application for handling facsimile (fax) transmissions over the public switched telephone network (PSTN), wherein said transmissions originate at standard analog devices, as telephone calls direct dialed to destination equipment intended to be the ultimate receivers of the respective transmissions;
- said extended service application comprising;
at local telephone system exchanges initially handling said fax transmissions, detecting fax transmissions originating at equipment subscribed to said extended service application;
in response to detection of a said fax transmission originating at equipment subscribed to said extended service application, interacting with the respective subscribed equipment to cause the respective subscribed equipment to complete its respective fax transmission, without an actual connection being made to the direct dialed destination of the respective transmission but with the appearance to the respective subscribed equipment of such a connection having been made;
at said initially handling telephone system exchanges, interacting with said respective subscribed equipment, recording signals representing said respective fax transmission and the respective direct dialed destination thereof, and providing a concluding indication effectively severing the connection between the respective interacting exchange and subscribed equipment;
at said initially handling exchanges, conducting operations after severing of said connections to said subscribed equipment to forward said recorded signals to said direct dialed destination; and
in a said forwarding operation, initiated at a said initially handling exchange, selectively converting said recorded signals representing a respective said transmission and destination thereof to a digital format and transferring said converted signals in said digital format to a digital data network which is external to said PSTN and not subject to being controlled by the respective initially handling telephone exchange.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A newly defined facsimile (fax) handling service, to be performed by carriers in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) on calls originating from standard analog fax sending equipment, includes: a) intercepting and recording direct dialed digits, representing final destinations of such calls, at PSTN switching nodes in areas local to respective call origins; b) returning acknowledgements from these nodes to respective callers in the form of fax tones corresponding to those usually returned by standard analog fax receiving equipment; c) locally intercepting and recording signals representing the fax image information intended for delivery to the called destinations; d) returning a completion signal indication to the originating equipment; and e) offline to the originating equipment, managing the delivery of the recorded image information to the final destinations represented by the recorded call digits.
94 Citations
11 Claims
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1. An extended service application for handling facsimile (fax) transmissions over the public switched telephone network (PSTN), wherein said transmissions originate at standard analog devices, as telephone calls direct dialed to destination equipment intended to be the ultimate receivers of the respective transmissions;
- said extended service application comprising;
at local telephone system exchanges initially handling said fax transmissions, detecting fax transmissions originating at equipment subscribed to said extended service application; in response to detection of a said fax transmission originating at equipment subscribed to said extended service application, interacting with the respective subscribed equipment to cause the respective subscribed equipment to complete its respective fax transmission, without an actual connection being made to the direct dialed destination of the respective transmission but with the appearance to the respective subscribed equipment of such a connection having been made; at said initially handling telephone system exchanges, interacting with said respective subscribed equipment, recording signals representing said respective fax transmission and the respective direct dialed destination thereof, and providing a concluding indication effectively severing the connection between the respective interacting exchange and subscribed equipment; at said initially handling exchanges, conducting operations after severing of said connections to said subscribed equipment to forward said recorded signals to said direct dialed destination; and in a said forwarding operation, initiated at a said initially handling exchange, selectively converting said recorded signals representing a respective said transmission and destination thereof to a digital format and transferring said converted signals in said digital format to a digital data network which is external to said PSTN and not subject to being controlled by the respective initially handling telephone exchange. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
- said extended service application comprising;
Specification