CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-000186, filed on Jan. 6, 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The embodiments discussed herein are related to a network system that processes data generated by a data generation device, a communication control device, and a communication control method.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, many Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices have been connected to networks. For example, monitoring cameras and weather sensors may be connected to a network. In this case, video data, weather data, and the like are transmitted over the network. The number of IoT devices connected to networks are expected to further increase in the future as well. Thus, technologies for reducing network congestion have been studied.

However, considering costs, installation spaces, power consumption, and the like, a method that physically increases network resources will not be preferable. Thus, methods that use existing network resources efficiently have been proposed. For example, a proposed method is one wherein when a load on a gateway device is greater than a specified threshold, a virtual machine is additionally provided, and terminals to be dealt with by a gateway device operated on the additionally provided virtual machine are determined (e.g., Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2016-086225). Another proposed method is one wherein a service customized virtual network is created in accordance with service requirement data (e.g., Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2018-500817).

The use efficiency of network resources is not necessarily sufficiently high in the prior art. For example, a method for optimizing the use efficiency of resources for the entirety of a network has not been proposed yet.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of the embodiments, a network system processes data generated by a data generation device. The network system includes a plurality of communication devices and a communication control device that controls the plurality of communication devices. The communication control device includes: a receiver, a processor and a transmitter. The receiver receives a request pertaining to use of data generated by the data generation device from a user device. The processor determines a route between the data generation device pertaining to the request received by the receiver and the user device, specifies a first communication device and a second communication device that are implemented at both ends of an overlapped route that is an overlap between a first route corresponding to a first request and a second route corresponding to a second request, and determines, based on the first request and the second request, a function to be executed by at least one of the first communication device and the second communication device. The transmitter transmits an instruction including information for identifying the function determined by the processor to at least one of the first communication device and the second communication device. At least one of the first communication device and the second communication device processes data corresponding to the first request and the second request based on the instruction.

The object and advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are not restrictive of the invention.

