Patent ID: 7649890

Claim:
A packet forwarding apparatus, connected to a plurality of communication nodes through a plurality of tunnels formed on a first network, for communicating packets encapsulated by a tunneling protocol with said communication nodes and forwarding the packets received from the first network to a second network after decapsulating the packets, said packet forwarding apparatus comprising: a plurality of input line interface modules connected to input lines from said first or second network; a plurality of output line interface modules connected to output lines to said first or second network; a controller; and a packet forwarding unit for interconnecting said controller, said input line interface modules, and said output line interface modules, wherein said controller determines a bandwidth to be allocated to each of sessions multiplexed through a tunnel established between the packet forwarding apparatus and one of said communication nodes according to a type of communication service to be offered to user packets, and notifies the communication node associated with each session of the allocated bandwidth, and wherein said controller modifies the bandwidth in accordance with priority points variable depending on a combination of importance points pre-assigned to each user and importance points corresponding to the type of communication service.