Patent ID: 7076540

Claim:
A service assignment apparatus for obtaining information on a network-service-provision state of a service-request-compatible apparatus, and setting a network service in a service-request-incompatible apparatus, where said service-request-compatible apparatus can receive a network-service request, and provide a requested network service, and said service-request-incompatible apparatus can undergo an operation, performed by an external apparatus, of setting a network service in the service-request-incompatible apparatus, and provide said network service set by the external apparatus; said service assignment apparatus comprising: network-information collecting means which collects said information on the network-service-provision state of said service-request-compatible apparatus; target-apparatus determining means which determines a service-request-incompatible apparatus which cannot provide a network service provided by said service-request-compatible apparatus, based on said information on the network-service-provision state which is collected by said network-information collecting means; service mapping means which determines a service which is to be set in said service-request-incompatible apparatus, based on said information on the network-service-provision state which is collected by said network-information collecting means and information on said service-request-incompatible apparatus determined by said target-apparatus determining means; and service setting means which sets said service determined by said service mapping means, in said service-request-incompatible apparatus, wherein said network-service request received by said service-request-compatible apparatus is a request selected from a list including a bandwidth-reservation request for a quality of service (QoS) control to guarantee bandwidth and a priority-reservation request for a class of service (CoS) control to prioritize traffic.