CN100373907C - Realization method and system of fax automation test - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a method for realizing the fax automation test, which comprises the following steps: (1) the voice card receives the fax command; (2) after the voice card receives the fax command, it parses the parameters of the fax command, and according to the parsed parameters, The voice card determines the corresponding sending and receiving ports, and instructs the corresponding voice card ports to start fax sending and receiving tasks; and (3) after the facsimile process ends, the voice card outputs sending reports and receiving reports according to the collected data information. The invention also provides a fax automatic test system. The invention can realize the automatic test of the fax service, improve the test efficiency, save labor costs, save the purchase cost of instruments and equipment, and can realize the mixed application test of the ordinary voice service and the fax service.

Description

Realization method and system of fax automation test

technical field

The invention belongs to the field of fax, and in particular relates to a method and system for realizing automatic test of fax.

Background technique

Fax is a means of communication that transmits images recorded on paper by scanning, and reproduces the images on recording paper at the receiving end. Faxes are divided into four categories (ie G1, G2, G3, G4), of which the first and second types of fax machines have been eliminated, and the fourth type of fax machines are used for ISDN, and G3 type of fax is widely used at present.

The facsimile process is generally divided into the following five stages:

Phase A: Fax call establishment phase, this phase is similar to the process of telephone call establishment;

Phase B: the pre-message process, this phase is mainly for capability negotiation and training;

Phase C: message transmission process and message transmission control process;

Stage D: Post-message process, this stage mainly performs operations of message verification, error correction, and multi-page reissue;

Phase E: The process of fax call release.

Fax services are widely and maturely applied on PSTN networks. With the gradual popularization and large-scale application of NGN (Next Generation Network), fax services are also required to be well applied on IP packet networks, that is, FoIP ( Fax over IP, Fax over IP).

There are a series of new problems to be solved when carrying the fax service on the IP network, such as the problem of compression and coding, problems caused by network instability, and so on. It is because of these problems that it is very important for the fax service to be strictly and adequately tested on NGN.

At present, in addition to the manual test of the fax machine, some fax test instruments, such as the common fax test instrument FaxLab, can be used to pre-define a set of test items, and then the fax service test can be carried out continuously.

However, there are the following disadvantages in the fax service test by fax test instruments such as FaxLab:

(1) No real automated testing can be performed. It defines a set of configuration files through predefined fax types, process parameters, etc., and the fax process cannot be flexibly controlled through scripts.

(2) The cost is relatively high. FaxLab itself is expensive, and a FaxLab can only be used as a fax machine.

(3) The single-page and multi-page image files to be sent cannot be flexibly selected, and there is no better means to visually view the image files.

(4) The mixed application test of ordinary voice service and fax service cannot be realized (for example, it is necessary to test and verify the voice call before or after fax).

Contents of the invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to overcome the above-mentioned deficiencies in the prior art, and provide a method and system for realizing automated testing of fax services with low cost and seamless integration with voice services.

The invention provides a method for realizing automated fax testing, which includes the following steps:

(1) The voice card receives the fax command;

(2) After the voice card receives the fax command, it parses the parameters of the fax command, and according to the parsed parameters, the voice card determines the corresponding sending and receiving ports, and instructs the corresponding voice card ports to start the fax sending and receiving tasks respectively; and (3 ) After the facsimile process ends, the voice card outputs sending reports and receiving reports according to the collected data information.

The fax command includes: the voice card port used by both the fax sender and receiver, sending and receiving image files, fax maximum rate, modulation protocol, encoding method, fax resolution, error correction mode, multi-page processing, fax page width and length and other parameters .

Among the parameters, the maximum fax rate, modulation protocol, encoding method, fax resolution, error correction mode, multi-page processing, fax page width and length are optional parameters. If the optional parameters are not specified, they correspond to default parameters.

Described step (2) further comprises:

(6) The voice card issues fax sending and receiving instructions to the sending and receiving ports respectively, and sends and receives faxes according to the set parameters.

If it is necessary to test the fact that the capabilities of the sending and receiving parties of the fax are different, the fax command includes two commands of sending fax and receiving fax.

When the voice service and the fax service are used together, the voice service and the fax service are processed using independent logical channels, and the fax logical channel and the voice logical channel are embodied in the same physical channel.

The present invention also provides a facsimile automation test system, which includes a softswitch, an IP bearer network, a sending media gateway, and a receiving media gateway, and also includes a voice card, which instructs the corresponding voice card ports to start fax sending and receiving tasks after receiving a fax command , the port of the voice card respectively instructs the sending media gateway and the receiving media gateway to send the fax and receive the fax.

The invention has the following beneficial effects: it can realize the automatic test of the fax service, improve the test efficiency and save labor cost; it can save the purchase cost of instruments and equipment; it can realize the mixed application test of the common voice service and the fax service.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the method and system for implementing fax automation testing in the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of the implementation method of the fax automation test of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a relationship diagram between physical channels and logical channels in the implementation method of fax automation test of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The realization method of the fax automation test of the present invention is to use the voice card to control two telephones to establish a basic voice call, and then control one party to send a fax and the other party to receive a fax through a fax command, wherein both fax sending and receiving can be controlled by a series of parameters Control the capability data of fax, such as fax rate, encoding method, resolution, ECM (Error Correction Mode), etc. After the fax is finished, the fax sending and receiving report can be given according to all the information collected during the faxing process. This article takes G3 fax as an example to illustrate.

The voice card is a board installed on the PCI slot of the PC, which provides 4 or more POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) interfaces, and its behavior can be controlled by programming to realize the communication of ordinary telephone and fax. Function.

The present invention is illustrated by taking two MGWs (Media Gateways, Media Gateways) in the NGN to perform faxing between users as an example. In this embodiment, MGW1 is set as the sending media gateway, and MGW2 is set as the receiving media gateway. A facsimile automatic test system provided by the present invention includes a soft switch device, an IP bearer network, a sending media gateway and a receiving media gateway, and also includes a voice card, which instructs the corresponding voice card ports to respectively start fax sending and receiving after receiving a fax command task, the port of the voice card instructs the sending media gateway and the receiving media gateway to send and receive faxes respectively.

Please refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2 (steps ①-⑤ in Figure 1 only reflect the steps related to fax sending and receiving, and do not include the process of call establishment and release):

Step ①: After the call is established, the tester sends a fax command to the voice card control program module according to the need. The command should include the voice card port used by the fax sender and receiver, sending and receiving image files, the maximum fax rate, modulation protocol, and encoding method , fax resolution, error correction mode, multi-page handling, fax page width and length and other parameters. The format is as follows (parameters in square brackets are optional): Fax ChSend ChRecv SendFiles RecvFile[Rate[/Modulation][Resolution[ECM[Encoding[PostCmd[Width[Length]]]]]]]

The meanings of the parameters in the command are as follows:

ChSend: The port identification name of the party sending the fax

ChRecv: The port identification name of the party receiving the fax

SendFiles: Fax files sent, support image files in TIFF format and ASCII text files.

RecvFile: Store the received fax files, and support the image format of TIFF format. When a multi-page fax is received, the document is automatically divided into multiple pages

Rate: the highest fax rate

Modulation: modulation and demodulation protocol, such as V17, V29, V27ter, V34, etc.

Resolution: Fax resolution, divided into three levels: Standard, Fine, Photo

ECM: Whether to enable the ECM function

Encoding: fax encoding method, possible values: MH, MR, MMR

PostCmd: Fax D stage post-processing command. When sending multiple pages, after one page is sent, the fax sender sends this command to the receiver to inform the other party how to send the next page

Width: Fax page width

Length: fax page length

Steps ② and ③: After the control module receives the fax command, it first parses all the parameters in the command (when the user does not specify an optional parameter, the module itself should have a corresponding default parameter value), and then finds the corresponding The sending port (ChSend) and receiving port (ChRecv) of the voice card issue commands to send and receive faxes to the two ports respectively, and send and receive faxes according to the parameters specified by the user.

If the user needs to test the situation that the sending and receiving parties of the fax have different capabilities (for example, the maximum rate of sending and receiving is not the same), then you can provide two commands for sending and receiving faxes, such as: FaxSend ChSend Files[Rate[/Modulation][Resolution [ECM[Encoding

[PostCmd[Width[Length]]]]]]]

FaxRecv ChRecv File[Rate[/Modulation][Resolution[Encoding]]]

The parameter functions of these two commands are basically the same as those described above, and will not be described in detail here.

Step ④, ⑤: After the facsimile process is over, the control program will give a sending and receiving report in a certain format based on the collected data information, and return the report to the tester for the test to draw conclusions based on the required standard analysis.

In order to facilitate the realization of automated analysis, the fax report format should be concise and uniform. The report style is as follows:

Send Report:

Start Time: 2005-10-16 15:08:11

Duration: 00:00:23

Peer ID: B1C2

Send Files: P2.GIF

PageNum: 1

Bytes: 5323

Total Lines: 1149

BadLines: 0

Rate: 9600

Modulation: V17

Resolution: Standard

ECM: OFF

Encoding: MH

Conclusion: Passed

Receive Report:

Start Time: 2005-10-16 15:08:11

Duration: 00:00:24

Peer ID: B1C1

Store File: R2.GIF

Page Num: 2

Bytes: 5292

Total Lines: 1148

Bad Lines: 0

RTN Pages: 0

Rate: 9600

Modulation: V17

Resolution: Standard

ECM: OFF

Encoding: MH

Width: 210

Auto Answer: NO

Conclusion: Passed

Among them, the last item of the sending and receiving report is the qualitative conclusion (Conclusion), and there are 4 kinds of qualitative conclusions, which are obtained by analyzing and judging the fax process data, corresponding to the following situations:

Passed: The fax was sent/received successfully, and there were no errors and retransmissions during the period;

Wamed: The fax is sent/received successfully, but there are problems such as wrong line, frame loss or page retransmission;

Failed: The fax has started to be sent/received, but the sending/receiving failed due to some reasons (such as poor network conditions, negotiation failure, peer connection interruption, etc.);

Aborted: The sending/receiving of the fax has started, but the sending/receiving has not been completed because the user actively terminated the fax.

The present invention can also ensure that the voice service and the fax service are seamlessly integrated and independent of each other, and the user can use the voice service and the fax service at any time, for example, the voice call test can be performed immediately after the fax is finished without any switching. To achieve this, the description is as follows:

A. Each physical channel occupies an independent thread, and the voice and fax services of the same physical channel should be processed by the same thread.

B. Commands should be executed in a synchronous rather than asynchronous manner. During the execution of a command, other commands received should be queued in the message queue and executed sequentially.

C. The operation and processing of fax and voice services remain independent and independent of each other, that is, the sending and receiving of faxes will not affect the status of voice services, and vice versa. It is necessary to ensure that the state is fully and accurately restored after each command execution completes.

D. Referring to Figure 3, the concept of logical channels is introduced. The voice service and the fax service use their own logical channels without affecting each other. The same physical channel corresponds to the two logical channels of voice and fax. The part in the dotted line box in the figure shows that in the same physical channel, voice and fax use their own independent logical channels to process services, and after completion, they enter the same module for result analysis and subsequent processing. In this way, from the user's point of view, voice There is no essential difference between business and fax business, just different operations corresponding to different commands, thus realizing seamless integration.

It can be understood that the present invention is described by taking the G3 fax machine as an example, and the same principle can be applied to the G4 fax machine. The format of the fax command and the fax report described in the present invention is only a specific form, and the implementation is not limited to the form described in the embodiment. The present invention is described by taking the NGN networking mode as an example, but it can also be applied to any other networking or field where the facsimile service is applied. The voice card used in the present invention can be the voice card of Intel Dialogic or any other products with similar functions.

The invention can realize the automatic test of the fax service, improve the test efficiency, save labor costs, save the purchase cost of instruments and equipment, and can realize the mixed application test of the ordinary voice service and the fax service.

Claims (7)

1. A method for implementing automated fax testing, comprising the following steps: (1) The voice card receives the fax command; (2) After the voice card receives the fax command, it parses the parameters of the fax command, and according to the parsed parameters, the voice card determines the corresponding sending and receiving ports, and respectively instructs the corresponding voice card ports to start the fax sending and receiving tasks; and (3) After the facsimile process is over, the voice card outputs sending reports and receiving reports according to the collected data information. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the fax command includes: the voice card port used by the fax sender and receiver, sending and receiving image files, the highest fax rate, modulation protocol, encoding method, fax resolution, Parameters such as error correction mode, multipage handling, fax page width and length, etc. 3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: among the parameters, the maximum fax rate, modulation protocol, encoding method, fax resolution, error correction mode, multi-page processing, fax page width and length are optional parameters , if the optional parameter is not specified, it corresponds to the default parameter. 4. method according to claim 3, is characterized in that: described step (2) further comprises: The voice card issues instructions for sending and receiving faxes to the sending and receiving ports respectively, and sends and receives faxes according to set parameters. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein if it is necessary to test the fact that the capabilities of the sending and receiving parties of the fax are different, the fax command includes two commands of sending fax and receiving fax. 6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: when the voice service and the fax service are mixed, the voice service and the fax service are respectively processed using independent logical channels, and the fax logical channel and the voice logical channel are jointly embodied in in the same physical channel. 7. A facsimile automation test system, comprising softswitch equipment, IP bearer network, sending media gateway and receiving media gateway, is characterized in that: also comprises voice card, after it receives fax command, parses the parameter of fax command, according to after parsing parameters, the voice card determines the corresponding sending and receiving port, and instructs the corresponding voice card port to start the fax sending and receiving tasks respectively, and the voice card port instructs the sending media gateway and the receiving media gateway to send fax and receive fax respectively.

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