Patent ID: 7319696

Claim:
A relay apparatus for relaying a packet, said relay apparatus comprising: a packet receiving unit for receiving a packet; a priority identifying unit for determining whether or not a priority is set in application data at an application level from said packet received by said packet receiving unit, and thereby identifying a first priority at said application level; a priority control unit for renewing a field value for packet priority control of said packet, the header being at a level lower than said application level, on the basis of said first priority; and a packet transmitting unit for transmitting said packet; wherein said priority control unit has a policy table in which a second priority is set for each source address or each destination address, searches said policy table for a source address or a destination address of said packet to determine a corresponding second priority, calculates a third priority from the second priority and the first priority of said packet, and sets a Type of Service (TOS) field value corresponding to the third priority in a TOS field.