Patent ID: 7428589

Claim:
A network system having a plurality of network segments and sending/receiving apparatus connected to the network system, the network system comprising: a plurality of process portions for information processing that connect the network segments and that can change their states to either of first and second states, the plurality of process portions including: only one first-state process portion that stores information of a second-state process portion; and each second-state process portion stores information of the only one first-state process portion, wherein there is only one process portion in the first state within a first group and a second group, which is determined by exchanging messages between the first-state process of the first group and the first-state process portion of the second group, and a third group consists process portions of the first group and process portions of the second group, wherein the process portion determined as the first-state process portion remains in the first state and the process portion not determined are changed into the second state.