Patent ID: 8655981

Claim:
An information communication system for exchanging a plurality of content between a plurality of node devices, the information communication system comprising: a plurality of internal networks that is connected to an external network, wherein each of the internal networks comprises: node devices connected to the internal network, each of the node devices having a first acquisition unit configured to acquire content by selecting a first device group as a content acquisition destination in preference to a second device group based upon index information, the index information being received from a root node, the first device group including a first support device connecting a first internal network that the node devices are connected to and a first node device connected to the first internal network, the second device group including a second support device connecting a second internal network that is connected to the first internal network via the external network and a second node device connected to the second internal network; and a support device, which connects the internal network and the external network, and which supports acquisition of content by the node devices by relaying data between the internal network and the external network; and an overlay network, which is a peer-to-peer logical overlay network constructed on a network formed by the external network and the internal networks, the overlay network being configured to allow searching for the index information, and being configured to exchange a specified content among the node devices over the internal networks and the support devices based on the index information, the index information being stored in the root node and including information of a plurality of node devices storing the specified content, wherein the node devices and the support devices are coupled to the overlay network, and wherein the first acquisition unit of each node device is configured to select the content acquisition destination in a priority order of the first device group, the second support device in the second device group, and the second node device in the second device group.