Patent ID: 6901074

Claim:
A communications method in a communications system having one or more communication nodes each of which is provided with an information processor, said communications method comprising the steps of: accepting an incoming communication packet with a priority at one of the communication nodes; and controlling, when a plurality of communication packets accepted at the step of accepting at said one of the communication nodes have the same output destination, a communication packet with a higher priority to be outputted first, wherein said step of controlling comprises the substeps of: buffering, at said one of the communication nodes, by using a plurality of packet overtaking buffers provided for individual input ports, a communication packet to be overtaken in accordance with the priority when a collision takes place between communication packets; making an output request from each input port side to one or more output port sides, the output request with the priority assigned to an input communication packet; carrying out arbitration of output from said each input port side using a priority arbiter for the communication packets which is allocated to each output port; and outputting an input packet to each output port side independently in accordance with the output arbitration.