Patent ID: 8037183

Claim:
A processing apparatus in a network system, which comprises a plurality of processing apparatuses that are connected together via communication paths and in which data is stored in said plurality of processing apparatuses, comprising: a communication-load-information-acquisition unit configured to acquire communication-load information related to said communication loads of each of said communication paths between said one processing apparatus and each of said other processing apparatuses; a communication-load-comparison unit configured to compare said communication loads of said communication paths, wherein said communication loads for said communication paths are determined based on at least one of a number of relay apparatuses in said communication path, a length of delay time in said communication path and an effective bandwidth of said communication path; a request-information-transmission unit that, based on said comparison results by said communication-load-comparison unit, sends request information to one of said other processing apparatuses, which is connected by one of said communication paths for which said communication load is relatively the one of said other apparatuses storing said data, and said request information being indicative of a request that said data be sent; a data-reception unit that receives said data that is sent from said other processing apparatus, a data-memory unit that saves data in memory; a memory-space-availability-determination unit configured to determine whether said data-memory unit comprises the necessary amount of empty memory space for saving said data in memory when said data is sent from a first said other processing apparatus that is connected via a communication path having a communication load that is greater than a specified communication load, wherein said data is received by said data-reception unit, and wherein said data has not already been saved in memory by said data-memory unit; and a data-memory-control unit that saves said data in an appropriate memory space in response to determining that there is said empty memory space by said memory-space-availability-determination unit.