Apparatus and method to collect device information published in past times via a network of gateways

Abstract

Gateways transfer data between publishers and subscribers. Upon receiving an acquisition request for acquiring device-information from a subscriber, a first gateway stores, as routing-information, a matching condition for transferring device-information and a transfer-destination address, and transfers the acquisition request. Upon receiving device-information issued by a publisher, the second gateway stores the device-information in association with a reception time of the device-information, adds, to the routing information, a matching result including a source address of the device-information and the reception time, and transfers the device-information through gateways to the first gateway, according to the routing information. When the acquisition request includes a time condition related to past time, the first gateway generates an accumulating area for accumulating device-information, and when device-information is acquired in response to the acquisition request, accumulates the acquired device-information in the accumulating area, and transmits the accumulated device-information to the subscriber after a predetermined time has elapsed.