Patent ID: 8797976

Claim:
A first node that executes primary communication and secondary communication via a network between a first node group and a second node group, the first node group including the first node and a second node, the second node group including a third node and a fourth node, the first node comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: set a communication path via the network between the first node and the third node; take data from among data received from the second node, and designate the data as outgoing data, the designated data being data related to secondary communication conducted between the second node and the fourth node; transmit the data that was designated as outgoing data to the third node via the communication path; compute, based on transmission capabilities of the network, a required time to transmit data that has been designated as outgoing data from a start time of a periodically executed transmission process with regard to the primary communication up until a current time; and determine whether a time equal to the current time plus the required time matches the start time of the primary communication periodically conducted between the second node and the fourth node, the processor decides which data from among the received data to designate as outgoing data based on a relationship between the time equal to the current time plus the required time and the start time, the designated data being data related to the secondary communication differs from data being sent by the primary communication.