[asterisk-biz] ATA that Supports T.38

[Matthew Rubenstein]

On Mon, 2007-03-12 at 22:58 +0000, Senad Jordanovic wrote:
> Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
> > 	It's clear there's no 100% effective solution right now for "Fax"
> > over IP (through Asterisk, at least). Has anyone deployed a simple
> > "scanner terminal" that can work *exactly* like a fax machine from
> > the user's point of view (eg a clueless receptionist feeding pages to
> > a phone#), but which sends a data stream to Asterisk (or a webserver,
> > etc)? That Asterisk turns around and sends to some endpoint, either
> > emailing an image, or even literally faxing out across a TDM from the
> > server (so the sender needs only broadband, no POTS of their own)?   
> > 
> 
> We have done just that for deployment needing to use satellite connection as
> only available option. 
> It was for a ship serving as a floating laboratory.
> 
> 
> It works like this:
> 
> Fax over IP (FoIP)
> 
> Fax over IP using PBXware uses internal logic to accept/send fax calls as
> normal at trunk and the local network level. Difference lies in how it
> handles transmitting the faxes across the IP networks (Internet, LAN, WAN
> etc.) The process goes as follows:
> 
> 1.	A fax call is received into PBXware PSTN trunk.
> 2.	PBXware creates an image file from received fax and sends it to
> remote PBXware using IP network.
> 3.	After receiving the file remote PBXware system converts the file and
> calls the local fax machine as a normal fax transmission.
> 
>  
> 
> Sending faxes out from the ship will work in similar way:
> 
> 1.	PBXware receives a fax transmission from local fax machine.
> 2.	PBXware transform the fax transmission into image file.
> 3.	PBXware then sends the image file to remote PBXware
> 4.	After receiving the file remote PBXware looks up the destination
> number and faxes out using PSTN trunk.

	Excellent to get a real world application as a model, thanks.

	It seems the way to do it is a pair of Asterisks used as "fax
gateways". Connect a real fax machine to a local FXS port in an Asterisk
server, which intercepts the fax and its destination phone# address.
Then Asterisk converts the fax to an image, and sends it over the IP
network as data (eg FTP, HTTP, SMTP), including the the phone# address,
to another server. That server then connects to a FXO port local to it,
sending a real fax over the PSTN to its destination phone#. All
reliable. Correct?

	Is there SW available for the fax machine's local Asterisk to intercept
the fax, and send it to the other Asterisk? Is there a feature of IAX
that can handle that transfer? And is there SW available for the other
end, to fax the incoming image to its phone#?


> Senad
> www.bicomsystems.com
> 
-- 

(C) Matthew Rubenstein