Patent ID: 6883017

Claim:
An information collection and distribution system for collecting and distributing information between a server and a plurality of clients which are connected to a network, wherein the server transmits a communication block including at least addresses of the plurality of clients and pieces of distribution information to one client of the plurality of clients through said network; said one client partitions all the other clients into a plurality of groups and relays the communication block to one client in each of the plurality of groups; said one client in each of said plurality of groups obtains the distribution information from the communication block, and circulates the communication block in which distribution results are set to a client next in an order on a basis of destination addresses; a final client of a last circulation destination which has received the pieces of distribution information last in each of said plurality of groups transmits the communication block to said one client that has partitioned the clients into groups; and said one client that has partitioned the clients into groups merges the communication block from said final client of each circulation destination in each of said plurality of groups to form a merged communication block and relays the merged communication block to said server.