Patent ID: 7496050

Claim:
A network communication apparatus comprising: at least one node connected to a network; and a management node that is also connected to the network and performs management of the at least one node, wherein each of the at least one node comprises: a data transmission and reception means for transmitting and receiving data that contains an ID field giving contents of the data and a data field giving an entity of the data; and an analyzing means for, when the data is received, analyzing contents of the ID field and the data field of the data, and wherein the management node comprises: an attribute information collecting means for collecting attribute information on each of the at least one node; a node ID number giving means for assigning and giving a node ID number to each of the at least one node based on the collected attribute information; a system configuration database storage means for storing a system configuration database showing each node that is required as a construction element with which the network is established as a system; a database creating means for creating a database from the attribute information collected by the attribute information collecting means; a system establishment judging means for judging whether or not the network is established as a system by checking the database created by the database creating means against the system configuration database; an available apparatus database storage means for storing an available apparatus database showing each node provided with a function with which the node is connectable to the network; and an available node judging means for judging whether or not each of the at least one node is connectable to the network by checking the database created by the database creating means against the available apparatus database.