Patent ID: 7860035

Claim:
A communication device which is provided in a network including a plurality of network segments to which customer devices are connected respectively, the communication device being connected through a cable or radio communication line to a central management device so that management information required for remote management of the customer devices is exchanged between the communication device and the central management device through the communication line, the communication device comprising: a searching unit searching customer devices connected to a predetermined network segment among the plurality of network segments in the network by predetermined timing; and a transmitting unit transmitting segment configuration information of the predetermined network segment as a result of device searching by the searching unit through the communication line to the central management device by predetermined timing, wherein the communication device further comprises a configuration storage unit storing segment configuration information for every network segment as a result of device searching by the searching unit therein, and wherein the searching unit searches customer devices for every network segment by predetermined timing, and determines whether there is a change in segment configuration information as a result of device searching by the searching unit, by comparison with the segment configuration information of a corresponding network segment stored in the configuration storage unit, and when a change in segment configuration information of the corresponding network segment occurs, the transmitting unit transmits configuration change information as a result of determination to the central management device by predetermined timing.