Patent ID: 8503349

Claim:
A relay apparatus capable of relaying data transfer between a terminal apparatus and a wireless LAN base station through a wireless LAN, comprising: a wireless communication unit configured to carry out wireless communication with the base station, and capable of direct wireless communications respectively with other relay apparatuses belonging to the wireless LAN, without going through the base station; a notification unit configured to provide notification of a link rate report for the relay apparatus to the other relay apparatuses, wherein the link rate report includes: throughput of data transfer from the relay apparatus to the other relay apparatuses, which is measured by the relay apparatus; throughput of data transfer from the relay apparatus to the base station which is measured by the relay apparatus; and the MAC addresses of the terminal apparatuses; a link rate table storing unit configured to store a link rate table containing contents of the link rate reports received from the other relay apparatuses; a table update unit configured to update the link rate table each time that the link rate report is received; and a path search unit configured to search the link rate table and compare the throughput of a wireless communication path for carrying out data transfer to a destination apparatus without going through the base station, with the throughput of a wireless communication path for carrying out data transfer to a destination apparatus going through the base station; and select the path having higher throughput.