Extended Facsimile Using Internet Mail
RFC 2532
Document | Type |
RFC - Proposed Standard
(March 1999; No errata)
Was draft-ietf-fax-eifax (fax WG)
|
|
---|---|---|---|
Authors | Larry Masinter , Dan Wing | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | IETF | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 2532 (Proposed Standard) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
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 Masinter & Wing Standards Track [Page 1] 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 Masinter & Wing Standards Track [Page 2] 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.Show full document text