Patent ID: 7043558

Claim:
A data communication apparatus for communicating between a terminal device requesting streaming delivery of information data and a delivering apparatus holding at least one information data file containing at least one piece of the requested information data and for performing the streaming delivery of the information data requested by the terminal device, the data communication apparatus comprising: a file caching unit configured to store information data files; a delivery request receiving unit for receiving a delivery request for streaming delivery of specific information data from the terminal device; a data checking unit for determining if the specific information data requested by the delivery request is stored in the file caching unit, and for sending the delivery request received from the terminal device to the delivering apparatus if an information data file containing the specific information data requested is not stored in the file caching unit; a file transmission requesting unit for sending a file transmission request requesting transmission of an information data file containing the specific information data requested by the terminal device to the delivering apparatus if it is determined that an information data file containing the specific information data request is not stored in the file caching unit; and a file receiving unit for receiving the requested information data file from the delivering apparatus in response to the file transmission request, wherein the file caching unit stores the requested information data file received from the delivering apparatus.