Patent ID: 7613825

Claim:
A hierarchical packet processing system composed of a relay unit and a server, which applies a service process to a received packet and relays the received packet, said relay unit, comprising: a call unit for calling up a prescribed service processing unit for performing the service process of the received packet; a first service processing unit for performing the service process of the received packet by the call of the call unit; and a second service processing unit for performing a virtual service process of the received packet by the call of the call unit, and said server, comprising an external service processing unit for performing an arbitrary service process of the received packet instead of the second service processing unit, wherein said second service processing unit comprises a service list management unit for managing information about a server performing a service process and identification information of a service process provided by the server according to the type of a packet, in order to distribute the service process of the received packet to the server, said server comprises a transfer unit for transferring information about itself and the identifier of a service process provided by the server, to the service list management unit, and when said second service processing unit is called up by the call of said call unit, the received packet is temporarily queued to a process request queue, the second service processing unit extracts information from the received packet queued to the process request queue, generates a process request including extracted information and transmits the process request to the server in order to request the arbitrary service process of the received packet, and the first service processing unit called up sequentially by said call unit performs a service process of a subsequent received packet.