Patent ID: 7694015

Claim:
A connection management apparatus to be coupled to a first gateway belonging to a first network and connecting to a first terminal, a second gateway belonging to a second network connecting to a second terminal, and a third gateway belonging to a third network, comprising: a transmission/reception unit connectable to said first, second and third networks; and a CPU connected to said transmission/reception unit, wherein: when a connection request issued from said first terminal to said second terminal is received by said transmission/reception unit, said CPU judges whether or not a first connection directly between the first and second networks is permitted under a predetermined connection restriction between networks to be established from said first terminal to said second terminal; when said first connection is not permitted to be established directly from said first network to said second network as a result of said judgment, said CPU generates an address identifying a second connection including said first gateway, said second gateway and said third gateway, which are connectable from the first terminal to said second terminal, and then said CPU transmits a data containing said generated address from said transmission/reception unit to said first terminal, and transmits an address registration request containing said generated address from said transmission/reception unit to said first gateway and said third gateway for starting the second connection from said first terminal to said second terminal via said third gateway; and when a notification notifying that said second connection has finished is received by said transmission/reception unit from said first terminal, said CPU transmits an address deletion request contained in said address registration request from said transmission/reception unit to said first gateway and said third gateway.