PURPOSE: To shorten the retrieving time of a timer control table by securing a pointer area for chaining plural timer control tables having the same time-out time on the timer control tables, and at the time of queuing, chaining the timer control tables having the same time-out time.

CONSTITUTION: When a time-out monitoring request is generated, a timer control part 2 forms a timer control table and requests a queuing means 4 to time- sequentially register the timer control table in a time-out processing queue. When the time-out time of plural timer control tables, the means 4 registers the timer control tables in the time-out processing queue, i.e. a queue storage area 6, while connecting the timer control tables by a chaining the tables by a chaining means 5. Althrough the existence of other timer control tables having the same time-out time is to be retrieved at the time of generating the time-out, decision for the existence of the timer control table having the same time-out time can be simplified and dequeuing processing also can be collectively executed because the time control tables having the same time-out time are chained by the means 5. Consequently, the overhead of timer control can be improved.