A multimedia gateway for phone/fax and MIME mail

  • Authors:

  • Shung-Foo Yu;Li-Ming Tseng

  • Affiliations:

  • Distributed System Lab., Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Central University, Chungli 32054 Taiwan, ROC;Distributed System Lab., Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Central University, Chungli 32054 Taiwan, ROC

  • Venue:
  • Computer Communications
  • Year:
  • 1997

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Abstract

Facsimiles have become the most popular form of text communication on the public switched telephone network (PSTN). At the same time, the e-mail is the well-liked textual delivery system on computer networks. The message exchange between the fax/phone and e-mail will improve their availability and increase their messaging capabilities. In the Distributed System Laboratory at the National Central University, ROC, a new system integrating the MIME (multipurpose internet mail extensions) mail and fax/phone has been proposed and implemented to fulfil the requirements of bidirectional multimedia messaging. A user can send mails from Internet to PSTN. Furthermore, our system allows transmitting multimedia messages from PSTN to Internet. The system has the following properties: (1) only use the usual current equipments, e.g. telephones, G3 fax machines and personal computers, (2) be conformable to the popular protocols and existing systems, (3) provide user-friendly interfaces, such as the voice guided help, and (4) provide a universal and transparent addressing scheme between facsimiles and e-mail. Finally, we believe that our system meets real user needs.