Patent ID: 7525927

Claim:
A unicast-to-multicast converting apparatus comprising: a unicast network interface for receiving monitoring data including a plurality of UDP unicast data packets each of which is transmitted by a source entity and to be unicast to a destination entity; a packet buffer for temporally storing said UDP unicast data packets received by said unicast network interface; a converting table storage section for storing conversion key information and a conversion rule table indicative of relationship between source entities and destination entities; a converting judging section for sequentially comparing each of said UDP unicast data packets stored in said packet buffer with said conversion key information stored in said converting table storage section to judge that a UDP unicast data packet is to be multicast when said UDP unicast data packet matches with said conversion key information and determining UDP unicast data packets to be multicast; a converting section for converting and rewriting said UDP unicast data packets to be multicast determined by said converting judging section into a plurality of UDP multicast data packets each to be multicast to a plurality of destination entities in accordance with said conversion rule table stored in said converting table storage section; and a multicast network interface for multicasting said UDP multicast data packets converted by said converting section to said destination entities; a console for inputting setting information therethrough, and a setting section for setting said conversion key information and said conversion rule table stored in said converting table storage section in accordance with said setting information inputted by said console.