Congestion control method and system

Abstract

Association identifiers for identifying, as the flow of a series of services, screen information are imparted to respective screen informations in a tree structure constituting a web service provided by the contents server. The association identifiers are constituted respectively by an identifier 'start' representing a start screen of a series of service elements, an identifier 'continue' representing a screen located along the way to contemplated information, and an identifier “end” representing a screen of the final contemplated information. When a congested state has occurred in the GW server during operation, the GW server judges the association identifier contained in screen information to be relayed. In this case, for screen information which is in the state of continuation for the series of service elements and, at the same time, the association identifier represents “continue,” the relay of the transfer of service information is continued until an association identifier representing “end” appears. On the other hand, for a request for the connection of a new service provided with an association identifier representing “start,” the connection is cut off. The above construction can prevent the cut-off of connection during utilization of service and thus can contribute to improved service to users.