sullivan@EDN-VAX.ARPA.UUCP (03/06/87)
The 4 March issue of EDN, pp53-56, describes some new fax emulators for PC's which apparently are compatible with CCITT group 3 and 4 algorithms, and which appear to be designed exclusively with dial-up phone line connections in mind. Two questions come to mind: 1. Is anyone working on a packet interface for these fax boards, or integrating them with existing packet interfaces, such as the PC-X.25 products or what I think of as "PC-IP" (single-connection-TCP, IP, TFTP running on a LAN)? 2. Are there obvious & compelling reasons why running fax thru a packet or robust transport layer would NOT be a good idea? (er, more than two questions) 3. What will implications be for ISDN-type services? Interfacing to B-channel dial-up sounds like a straightforward design problem with nonzero but small risk. However, it sounds like the whole idea of packetizing fax through the D-channel needs to be looked at carefully to determine under what performance and cost ranges it would be a desirable service. Thanks for all thoughts, Pat Sullivan DCEC Reston, VA.