Provided is an arbitration circuit included in a host controller that can be connected to a plurality of external devices via a plurality of pipe control circuits. The arbitration circuit includes an available state information storage unit that stores available state information. The available state information indicates an available state of the plurality of pipe control circuits and is updated by the pipe control circuit by a unit of data transfer of a predetermined communication size. The arbitration circuit further includes an arbitration unit that refers to the available state information storage unit, selects the arbitrary pipe control circuit from the available pipe control circuit, and allocates the selected pipe control circuit to the external device, while updating the available state information storage unit.