Apparatus and method for aligning order of received packets

An apparatus for controlling a communication in which packets to be transmitted over a transport layer connection established between a transmission side apparatus and a reception side apparatus are distributed to a plurality of links for transmission, the apparatus comprising:

• a hardware processor configured to:
• estimate a first transmission rate obtained by the communication in which an order alignment process is executed in a layer lower than the transport layer in the reception side apparatus, the order alignment process including aligning an order of received packets in accordance with a transmission order,
• estimate a second transmission rate obtained by the communication in which the order alignment process is not executed in the reception side apparatus, and
• control an execution/non-execution of the order alignment process in the reception side apparatus, based on a difference between the first transmission rate and the second transmission rate;
• and
• a memory coupled to the hardware processor and configured to temporally store the received packets.