Understanding Session Border Controllers: Comprehensive Guide to Designing, Deploying, Troubleshooting, and Maintaining Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) Solutions

Chapter 10

Fax over IP (FoIP) on SBCs

Fax (short for facsimile) technology can trace its roots back to as early as the 1800s, when a Scotsman by the name of Alexander Bain came up with a very rudimentary method of transmitting data over two wires. Throughout the early 1900s, fax adoption was slow as it found application in niche areas. Over the subsequent years, however, incremental and sometimes monumental leaps in fax technology have made it the ubiquitous technology it is today.

The scope of this chapter is restricted to conceptually introducing fax over IP (FoIP) and extending the discussion to FoIP handling on SBCs. (For a more detailed understanding of FoIP, refer to the Cisco Press book Fax, Modem, and Text for IP Telephony.) This chapter ...