PURPOSE: To save trouble of reproducing and relay by using a token provided with a field, which counts the transmission request volume of each station, and a field, which discriminates whether a frame is transmitted directly or circularly, to access a network at the time of accessing a token bus.

CONSTITUTION: The token in the network access method consists of a direct transmission flag field 11, a transmission request field length 12, a transmission request volume fiels 13, a destination address 14, a transmission address 15, and data 16. At the time of transmission, it is checked whether a transmission request is issued or not; and when it is issued, the transmission request volume from each station is counted by the token, and the use efficiency of the network is discriminated based on the counted result. Unless the use rate is low, a flag of direct transmission is set in the token. At the time of reception, the flag of direct transmission is checked, and the transmission volume is written if this flag is set, and direct or circular transmission is performed to terminate the processing.