Patent ID: 8874033

Claim:
A communication apparatus for performing communication with another communication apparatus that is a communication party in accordance with a communication protocol in which one or more commands and one or more responses are at least defined, the communication apparatus comprising: communication means for performing communication in one of (i) an active mode, which is a communication mode in which each of a plurality of apparatuses for transmitting and receiving data outputs an electromagnetic wave, modulates the electromagnetic wave, and thereby transmits data, and (ii) a passive mode, which is a communication mode in which one apparatus among a plurality of apparatuses outputs an electromagnetic wave, modulates the electromagnetic wave, and thereby transmits data, and the other apparatuses among the plurality of apparatuses transmit data by load-modulating the electromagnetic wave output by the one apparatus; control means for performing control such that a data group containing one or more pieces of information related to one predetermined type of capability possessed by the communication apparatus or the other communication apparatus is generated for each type of capability, and subsequently, the one or more generated data groups, with the one or more generated data groups being stored in a predetermined one of the one or more commands and the one or more responses defined by the communication protocol, are transmitted to the other communication apparatus in a capsule that complies with the communication protocol, the capsule including at least an information indicating capabilities field, which indicates a type of capability possessed by the communication apparatus that differs from a capability complying with the communication protocol, and an instruction for information indicating capabilities field including instructions configured to be used by the communication party to perform the type of capability that differs from the capability complying with the communication protocol set in the information indicating capabilities field.