Patent ID: 7370113

Claim:
A wireless LAN apparatus comprising: a reception section which receives frames including fragments respectively, each of the fragments having a predetermined size into which first data is divided; a reading section which reads the total number of fragments based on the first data, the total number of fragments containing the first frame being based on the first data, the first frame being first received by the reception section; a queue that stores the received frames for each fragment; a free-area detecting section which detects free areas in the queue; a determining section which determines whether the amount of the first data based on the total number of fragments in the first data is larger than the amount of free areas in the queue or is equal to or smaller than the amount of free areas in the queue; a control section having a function of inserting fragments based on the first data into the queue if the determining section determines that the amount of the first data is equal to or smaller than the amount of free areas in the queue, wherein if the determining section determines that the amount of the first data is larger than the amount of free areas in the queue, then the determining section determines whether a difference between the amount of the first data and the amount of free areas in the queue is larger than a predetermined amount or is equal to or smaller than the predetermined amount, and the control section further functions in the following manner: if the determining section determines that the difference between the amount of the first data and the amount of free areas in the queue is equal to or smaller than the predetermined amount, the control section discards fragments of a second data, which is one of the items of data, some fragments of which have already been inserted into the queue, the second data having a smallest percentage of the total number of fragments taken up by the number of fragments already inserted, while inserting the fragments based on the first data into the queue, and if the determining section determines that the difference between the amount of the first data and the amount of free areas in the queue is larger than the predetermined amount, the control section discards the fragments based on the first data.