Facsimile Communication Over IP Networks


Communication over the packet-switched networks such as IP networks is far more efficient and cost-effective than the circuit-switched networks such as PSTN. It is therefore desirable to use IP network as transport for circuit-switched applications such as voice and facsimile. However, voice transport over IP network is common. In this work, we have designed and implemented a facsimile gateway for the transmission of facsimile documents between two standard terminal devices connected to a telephone network using the IP network for part of the communication path and between a terminal device connected to a telephone network and an electronic mail service accesible via an IP network. Our design is based on the store-and-forward mode of transmission in which the facsimile document does not reach the destination before the sending terminal device terminates the facsimile call. So the sending terminal device will receive the confirmation of delivery to the recipient in a separate fax transmission.