ANONYMOUS ROUTE SEARCH REQUEST METHOD, SEARCH REQUEST RELAY AND RESPONSE METHODS THEREOF, ANONYMOUS DATA RELAY METHOD, AND BULLETIN BOARD PROVIDING APPARATUS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve a communication where the anonymity of a person who transmits/receives data is protected, on a network environment whose node configuration changes dynamically. SOLUTION: A transmission node 1 sends a route search packet by multicast (steps S1-S3). A relay node 2 adds its own node identifier to anonymous route information for reply for indicating a route for reaching the node for entirely enciphering, and transfers the route search packet to the next node (steps S4-S6). A reception node 3 transmits a route notification packet to the transmission node 1 according to the anonymous route information for reply when the route search packet reaches (steps S7-S9). The relay node 2 enciphers its own node identifier by the public key of a transmission source node, adds its own node identifier to the route notification packet, and transmits its own node identifier to the next node according to the anonymous route information for reply (steps S10-S12). COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI