Email to fax processing system
View Patent ↗An email-to-facsimile (fax) processing system efficiently services requests issued by customers of the system in a fair and impartial manner. The system illustratively includes a plurality of components configured to provide email-to-fax processing services over a network. The components of the email-to-fax system include computer nodes executing software processes and/or services embodied as one or more FaxEmail routers, FaxEmail pollers, Rendering servers and Fax assemblers. The email-to-fax processing services provided by the components illustratively include email storage and retrieval services, email-to-fax conversion services and fax organizational transmission services. One or more of these services may be performed by the components in a randomized fashion to ensure that the customer requests, such as email-to-fax requests, may be fairly and impartially processed by the system.
1. A method comprising:
configuring a plurality of components of an email-to-fax processing system to provide email-to-fax processing services over a network, wherein the components include a FaxEmail router, a Rendering server and a Fax assembler;
accessing email headers from a maildrop on a public email server at the FaxEmail router;
retrieving emails, including attachments, associated with the email headers from the maildrop;
converting the attachments to faxes at the Rendering server;
storing the faxes in a file server and fax headers for the faxes in a first data set of a database;
retrieving the fax headers in random order from the first data set and the faxes from the file server at the Fax assembler; and
randomly organizing the faxes for transmission over the network at the Fax assembler.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein randomly organizing the faxes comprises:
randomly organizing the faxes for each customer requesting faxes to be sent.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein randomly organizing the faxes comprises:
randomly organizing a sequence of customers requesting faxes to be sent.
4. The method of claim 2 wherein randomly organizing the faxes comprises:
organizing a sequence of customers according to respective customer priorities.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving the fax headers in random order comprises:
monitoring the first data set; and
upon discovering the fax headers, processing the fax headers in random order.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein processing the fax headers in random order comprises:
using a random number generation (RNG) function to realize the random processing of fax headers, wherein parameters of the RNG function are defined by an amount of the fax headers.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein accessing the email headers comprises:
using a random number generation (RNG) function to realize the access, wherein parameters of the RNG function are dependent upon an operating environment of the email-to-fax processing system.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
storing the attachments in the file server of the system and the email headers as a second data set in the database of the system; and
retrieving the email headers in random order from the second data set and the attachments from the file server at the Rendering server.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein retrieving the email headers in random order comprises:
monitoring the second data set; and
upon discovering the email headers, processing the email headers in random order.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein processing the email headers in random order comprises:
using a random number generation (RNG) function to realize the random processing of email headers, wherein parameters of the RNG function are defined by an amount of the email headers.
11. A system comprising:
a plurality of computer nodes embodied as a FaxEmail router, a Rendering server and a Fax assembler, each computer node having one or more network interfaces coupled to one or more networks and a memory configured to store software executable by the computer node, the software when executed operable to:
access email headers from a maildrop on a public email server at the FaxEmail router;
retrieve emails, including attachments, associated with the email headers from the maildrop;
convert the attachments to faxes at the Rendering server;
store the faxes in a file server and fax headers for the faxes in a first data set of a database at the Rendering server;
retrieve the fax headers in random order from the first data set and the faxes from the file server at the Fax assembler; and
randomly organize the faxes for transmission over the network at the Fax assembler.
12. The system of claim 11 wherein the software when executed is further operable to randomly organize the faxes by:
randomly organizing the faxes for each customer requesting faxes to be sent.
13. The system of claim 12 wherein the software when executed is further operable to randomly organize the faxes by:
randomly organizing a sequence of customers requesting faxes to be sent.
14. The system of claim 12 wherein the software when executed is further operable to randomly organize the faxes by:
organizing a sequence of customers according to respective customer priorities.
15. The system of claim 11 wherein the software when executed is further operable to retrieve the fax headers in random order by:
monitoring the first data set; and
upon discovering the fax headers, processing the fax headers in random order.
16. The system of claim 15 wherein the software when executed is further operable to process the fax headers in random order by:
using a random number generation (RNG) function to realize the random processing of fax headers, wherein parameters of the RNG function are defined by an amount of the fax headers.
17. The system of claim 11 wherein the software when executed is further operable to access the email headers by:
using a random number generation (RNG) function to realize the access, wherein parameters of the RNG function are dependent upon an operating environment of the email-to-fax processing system.
18. The system of claim 11 wherein the software when executed is further operable to:
store the attachments in the file server of the system and the email headers as a second data set in the database of the system; and
retrieve the email headers in random order from the second data set and the attachments from the file server at the Rendering server.
19. The system of claim 18 wherein the software when executed is further operable to retrieve the email headers in random order by:
monitoring the second data set; and
upon discovering the email headers, processing the email headers in random order.
20. The system of claim 19 wherein the software when executed is further operable to process the email headers in random order by:
using a random number generation (RNG) function to realize the random processing of email headers, wherein parameters of the RNG function are defined by an amount of the email headers.