Patent ID: 6853639
Filing Date: 2005-02-08
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An information relay device connected between a plurality of logical or physical networks for performing an operation for relay of information between said networks, comprising: a transmit/receive processing unit for receiving a general purpose multicast message from one of said plurality of networks and transmitting a multicast message to at least one of said plurality of networks; and a protocol conversion processing unit for converting, in the case where the general purpose multicast message received by said transmit/receive processing unit is a multicast protocol message of a certain level, said multicast protocol message of the certain level into a multicast protocol message of another level, wherein in the case where the general purpose multicast message received by said transmit/receive processing unit is said multicast protocol message of the certain level, said protocol conversion processing unit rewrites a multicast address of said certain level in the received multicast message into a multicast address of said other level and rewrites a message of said certain level indicating a transmit request or a transmit refusal request in the received multicast message into a message of said other level having a meaning equivalent to a meaning of the message of said certain level.