Patent ID: 8631107

Claim:
A communication system, comprising: a plurality of service providing devices providing a service; a service using device using the service; and a gateway apparatus controlling a communication data communicated between the plurality of service providing devices and the service using device via a network, the gateway apparatus including: a memory configured to store service identification information for identifying one of the plurality of service providing devices, conversion service identification for identifying conversion service for bilaterally converting the communication data into formats that can be processed by the one of the plurality of service providing devices and the service using device based on a type of the service, and conversion service Uniform Resource Locator (URL) indicating URL for using the conversion service, the conversion service identification and the conversion service URL being correlated to each other, and a processor executing a process including: receiving the service identification information announced by the plurality of service providing devices, selecting the conversion service URL stored in the memory on the basis of the received service identification information, announcing the conversion service information including the selected conversion service URL, receiving a first request for using the conversion service sent from the service using device by using the conversion service URL, obtaining the service identification information stored in the memory based on the basis of the conversion service URL corresponding to the first request, sending a second request for using the service to the service providing device identified by the obtained service identification information, receiving a response data corresponding to the second request from the service providing device identified by the obtained service identification information, detecting the conversion service URL corresponding to the first request from the memory, converting the response data by using a conversion program correlated with the detected conversion service URL, and sending the converted response data to the service using device, wherein the service using device detects the service information announced by the plurality of service providing devices and the conversion service information announced by the gateway apparatus, respectively, wherein the service using device stores the detected service information, and wherein the service using device updates that the conversion service information is validated when the service using device detects the service information and the conversion service information corresponding to one and same service.