Patent ID: 8059561

Claim:
An information communication system formed by participation of a plurality of node devices mutually connected through a communication route, one of the plurality of node devices comprising: a storing unit that stores address information indicating addresses of a part of node devices in the plurality of node devices, wherein the plurality of node devices are divided into a plurality of first groups in conformity with a first predetermined rule; a first determining unit that determines a first representative node device in the first groups, wherein the first representative node device is a representative of the node devices of a first group to which the first representative node device belongs; and an information transmitting unit that transmits information to be transmitted to the first representative node device determined by the first determining unit, the first representative node device comprising: a receiving unit that receives the information transmitted by the information transmitting unit of another node device; a second determining unit that determines a second representative node device in second groups into which the first group including the first representative node device is further divided in conformity with a second predetermined rule, wherein the second representative node device is a representative of the node devices of a second group to which the second representative node device belongs; and an information transferring unit that transfers the main information received by the receiving unit to the second representative node device determined by the second determining unit, wherein the information transmitting unit adds a transmission group specification value indicative of the first groups to the information, and transmits the information to which the transmission group specification value is added, to the first representative node device belonging to the first groups corresponding to the transmission group specification value; and the information transfer unit converts the transmission group specification value added to the information received by the receiving unit into a transmission group specification value indicative of the second groups, adds the converted transmission group specification value to the information, and transfers the information to which the converted transmission group specification value is added, to the second representative node device belonging to the second groups corresponding to the converted transmission group specification value, in response to determining that the transmission group specification value added to the information received by the receiving unit indicates bound for the first group including the first representative node device which receives the information by the receiving unit.