Communication apparatus and data communication method

A data communication method being implemented by a data communication apparatus, the data communication method comprising:

• a procedure for network processing units, wherein each network processing unit establishes a logical communication protocol connection and sends and receives a block generated by segmenting transmission data via the connection;
• a procedure of estimating, for each block and each of the connections established by said processing units, an arrival time of the block from the data communication apparatus, at one of a final reception terminal and a merging apparatus through a network;
• a procedure of selecting, for each block, a logical communication protocol connection with a shortest arrival time from the connections established by the network processing units on the basis of an estimation result;
• and
• a procedure of outputting each block from each of said network processing units from a transmission terminal of the data communication apparatus to the network by using the selected connection,
• wherein the procedure of selecting the logical communication protocol connection with the shortest arrival time includes a procedure for measuring a first time after the block is distributed to the connection until the block is output to the network;
• and
• wherein in the first time measuring procedure, the first time is measured, for each block and each of the plurality of connections, on the basis of:
• one of a transmission queue length and a transmission wait time of each connection, and
• an effective throughput of a communication protocol on each connection, wherein the effective throughput is a throughput output from TCP to a protocol adjacent to TCP.

A non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing a data communication program which causes a computer to execute procedures comprising:

• a procedure for network processing units, wherein each network processing unit establishes a logical communication protocol connection and sends or receives a block generated by segmenting transmission data via the connection;
• a procedure of estimating, for each block and each of the connections established by said processing units, an arrival time of the block from an apparatus at one of a final reception terminal and a merging apparatus through a network;
• a procedure of selecting, for each block, a connection with a shortest arrival time from the connections established by the network processing units on the basis of an estimation result;
• and
• a procedure of outputting each block from each of said network processing units to the network by using the selected connection,
• wherein the procedure of selecting a logical communication protocol connection with the shortest arrival time includes measuring for each block and each of the plurality of connections, a first time after the block is distributed to the connection until the block is output to the network, on the basis of:
• one of a transmission queue length and a transmission wait time of each connection, and
• an effective throughput of a communication protocol on each connection, wherein the effective throughput is a throughput output from TCP to a protocol adjacent to TCP.