Patent ID: 9246811
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A communication method using link aggregation, the communication method comprising: receiving a transfer frame; calculating, by a first communication device, an identification number of an output port for the transfer frame among a plurality of ports using a hash function, by using a combination of a source address of the transfer frame, a destination address of the transfer frame, and a cyclic number that is generated for every combination of the source address and the destination address and represents an order of the transfer frame as a hash key; and transmitting the transfer frame from the output port, wherein the receiving and the transmitting are performed by the first communication device, and the communication method further comprising: associating, by a second communication device that receives the transfer frame from the first communication device, a reception port number of a reception port that receives the transfer frame with the transfer frame; predicting the order of the transfer frame based on a combination of the source address, the destination address, and the reception port number; correcting the order of the transfer frame to a predicted order when the order is not correct; and transmitting the transfer frame to a transfer destination in accordance with the predicted order.