Patent ID: 7310683

Claim:
A message relay device connected with a plurality or routing processing devices for carrying out connection-less communications, for relaying a message from one routing processing device to another routing processing device, the message relay device comprising: a plurality of interface units provided in correspondence to the routing processing devices; and a switching unit connecting the plurality of interface units within the message relay device using optical rings capable of transmitting optical signals in a plurality of wavelengths by multiplexing the optical signals; wherein each interface unit transmits an input message entered from a corresponding routing processing device of each interface unit, through a communication channel in the optical rings toward a target interface corresponding to a relaying target routing processing device of the input message which is formed by using a wavelength determined according to the input message, receives an output message to be outputted to the corresponding routing processing device of each interface unit from the switching unit by selectively intercepting a wavelength uniquely allocated to each interface unit in the optical rings, and processes an intercepted message intercepted by selectively intercepting a wavelength commonly allocated to the plurality of interface units in the optical rings, according to an internal identifier that includes information indicating an interface unit within the message relay device which is a destination of the intercepted message, the internal identifier being internal to the message relay device, where a number of wavelengths that can be received at each interface unit is set to be greater than a number of wavelengths that can be transmitted from each interface unit.