Patent ID: 7720477

Claim:
A communication system having communication terminals, wherein each communication terminal comprises: a storage unit configured to store a device capability attribute indicating at least one of a provision capability of a communication parameter and a receipt capability of the communication parameter, and provision attribute information indicating whether the communication terminal is in a state in which the communication terminal can provide the communication parameter to another communication terminal, wherein the communication parameter is used to configure a network between communication terminals and indicates an encryption method for encrypting data to be communicated via the network, and the provision capability indicates a capability in which the communication terminal can provide the communication parameter to another communication terminal and the receipt capability indicates a capability in which a communication terminal can receive the communication parameter from another communication terminal; a unit configured to select, as a provision device for providing the communication parameter to another communication terminal, a communication terminal storing the device capability attribute indicating the provision capability; a unit configured to preferentially select, as the provision device, a communication terminal storing the device capability attribute indicating only the provision capability if there are a plurality of communication terminals storing the device capability attribute indicating the provision capability; and a unit configured to select, as the provision device, a communication terminal storing the provision attribute information indicating a state in which the communication terminal can provide the communication parameter to another communication terminal, if the device capability attribute of each communication terminal is equal, wherein the communication parameter is provided from the communication terminal selected as the provision device, to other communication terminals in the communication system.