Requirements for Internet Fax
draft-ietf-fax-requirements-03

Abstract

Facsimile (Fax) has a long tradition of being a telephony application from one terminal device to another, where the terminal device consists of a paper input device (scanner), a paper output device (printer), and a limited amount of processing power. The transmission of data end-to-end is accompanied by negotiation (to ensure that the scanned data can be rendered at the recipient) and confirmation of delivery (to give the sender assurance that the final data has been received and processed.) Over time, facsimile has been extended to allow for PCs connected running software to send and receive fax, to send data other than paper images, as well as many extensions to the basic image model, e.g., recent ITU fax standards for color fax. Other delivery extensions have included sub-addressing (additional signals after the call is established to facilitate automated routing of faxes to desktops or mailboxes), and enhanced features such as fax-back, polling, and even the transfer of binary files. Many mechanisms for sending fax documents over the Internet have been demonstrated and deployed and are currently in use. This document summarizes the requirements for Internet Fax as discussed in the IETF Internet Fax working group. It is an attempt to establish a baseline of agreed-to requirements against which any proposal for Internet Fax can be judged. This document encompasses the requirements for both 'real-time' fax as well as 'store and forward' fax (both terms defined in Section 2).

Authors

Larry M Masinter

(Note: The e-mail addresses provided for the authors of this Internet-Draft may no longer be valid.)