Extended Facsimile Using Internet Mail
RFC 2532

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Network Working Group                                        L. Masinter
Request for Comments: 2532                             Xerox Corporation
Category: Standards Track                                        D. Wing
                                                           Cisco Systems
                                                              March 1999

                 Extended Facsimile Using Internet Mail

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document describes extensions to "Simple Mode of Facsimile Using
   Internet Mail" [RFC2305] and describes additional features, including
   transmission of enhanced document characteristics (higher resolution,
   color) and confirmation of delivery and processing.

   These additional features are designed to provide the highest level
   of interoperability with the existing and future standards-compliant
   email infrastructure and mail user agents, while providing a level of
   service that approximates the level currently enjoyed by fax users.

   The IETF has been notified of intellectual property rights claimed in
   regard to some or all of the specification contained in this
   document.  For more information consult the online list of claimed
   rights in <http://www.ietf.org/ipr.html>.

1.  Introduction

   This document notes a number of enhancements to the "Simple Mode of
   Facsimile Using Internet Mail" [RFC2305] that may be combined to
   create an extended mode of facsimile using Internet mail.

   The new features are designed to be interoperable with the existing
   base of mail transfer agents (MTAs) and mail user agents (MUAs), and
   take advantage of existing standards for advanced functionality such
   as positive delivery confirmation and disposition notification.  The

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RFC 2532                 Extended Internet Fax                March 1999

   enhancements described in this document utilize the messaging
   infrastructure, where possible, instead of creating fax-specific
   features which are unlikely to be implemented in non-fax messaging
   software.

   This document standardizes the following two features.

      *  Delivery confirmation (Section 2) (required)
      *  Additional document features (Section 3) (optional)

   These features are fully described in another document titled
   "Terminology and Goals for Internet Fax" [RFC2542].

1.1.  Definition of Terms

   The term "processing" indicates the action of rendering or
   transmitting the contents of the message to a printer, display
   device, or fax machine.

   The term "processing confirmation" is an indication by the recipient
   of a message that it is able to process the contents of that message.

   The term "recipient" indicates the device which performs the
   processing function.  For example, a recipient could be implemented
   as a traditional Mail User Agent on a PC, a standalone device which
   retrieves mail using POP3 or IMAP, an SMTP server which prints
   incoming messages (similar to an LPR server).

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

1.2.  GSTN Fax Gateways ("onramp"/"offramp")

   The behavior of gateways from GSTN fax to SMTP ("onramps") and from
   SMTP to GSTN fax ("offramps") are not described in this document.
   However, such gateways SHOULD have the behavior characteristics of
   senders and recipients as described in this document.

2.  Delivery and Processing Confirmation

   In traditional GSTN-based realtime facsimile, the receiving terminal
   acknowledges successful receipt and processing of every page [T.30].

   In Internet Mail, the operations of Delivery (to the mailbox) and
   Disposition (to paper or a screen) may be separated in time (due to
   store and forwarding of messages) and location (due to separation of
   delivery agent (MTA) and user agent (MUA)).  The confirmation of

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RFC 2532                 Extended Internet Fax                March 1999

   these two operations are supplied by two different standards-track
   mechanisms: Delivery Status Notifications (DSN) [RFC1891, RFC1894]
   and Message Disposition Notifications (MDN) [RFC2298], respectively.

   This section defines requirements for devices or services that are to
   be considered compliant with this document.