Patent ID: 7760731
Filing Date: 2010-07-20
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A host unit connected with a plurality of couplers on a downlink side thereof in a passive optical network, each of the couplers being connected with a plurality of sub-units, said host unit comprising: a layer 2 switch to switch a path for outputting packets to the couplers, at layer 2 in an OSI reference model; a terminal registration section to extract addresses of terminals connected to the sub-units from uplink packets, and to control storing of the extracted addresses in an address management table; a validity determining section to extract an address of a destination terminal included in a downlink packet output from said layer 2 switch and to determine whether or not an address identical with the extracted address of the destination terminal is stored in the address management table; and a write control section to broadcast the downlink packet to the passive network if the validity determining section determines that the extracted address of the destination terminal is among the addresses of terminals which are stored in the address management table and discard the downlink packet without broadcasting the downlink packet to the passive optical network if the validity determining section determines that the extracted address of the destination terminal is not among the addresses of terminals which are stored in the address management table.