Patent ID: 7580407

Claim:
A packet forwarding apparatus for forwarding a packet in accordance with a destination address using a trunk, the trunk combining a plurality of links connected to the packet forwarding apparatus into one link, the packet forwarding apparatus comprising: learning means for learning a source address and a receiving path of the packet by learning information for identifying a port through which to receive the packet, information for identifying a trunk of a link connected to the port, and information for identifying that the receiving path of a packet received by the trunk has been changed; packet forwarding means for, when a receiving path of packets having the same source address is changed in the trunk, selecting one link from among a plurality of links of the trunk in order to forward a packet having a destination address that is the same as the source address and forwarding the packet via the selected link; and learning requesting means for, when a receiving path of packets having the same source address is changed in the trunk, requesting the performance of learning for the packet having a destination address that is the same as the source address inside the packet forwarding apparatus.