Patent ID: 7693169

Claim:
A transmission apparatus that forwards received frames, comprising: at least one receiving communication unit configured to receive the frame and at least one forwarding communication unit configured to forward the frame, the receiving communication unit and the forwarding communication unit being connected to each other, wherein the receiving communication unit includes an embedding unit that embeds in a received frame identification data indicative of information required for selecting a setting table among a plurality of setting tables; and a communication control unit that forwards identification data embedded frame to the forwarding communication unit, and the forwarding communication unit includes a storage unit that stores the setting tables pertaining to frame transmission; a selecting unit that selects a setting table among the setting tables stored in the storage unit based on the identification data embedded in the identification data embedded frame; and a communication control unit that forwards the frame according to the setting table selected by the selecting unit, wherein the transmission apparatus is capable of forming link aggregates, a link aggregate being a logical link formed by combining a plurality of physical links, wherein in the forwarding communication unit the storage unit stores, in the respective setting tables, data pertaining to ports in the forwarding communication unit to which the frame is to be output during flooding, and the communication control unit determines ports to which the frame is to be output based on the setting table selected by the selecting unit during flooding.