Patent ID: 8121120

Claim:
A packet relay apparatus to be connected to a plurality of networks each accommodating users, comprising: a plurality of network interfaces having bandwidth controllers for transmission/reception of a packet relative to said networks; and a packet processor for referring to header information of said packet received via any one of said plurality of network interfaces to determine a relay destination, and transferring said packet to any one of said plurality of network interfaces, wherein said bandwidth controller comprises: a buffer having a plurality of queues; a queuing unit for storing said packet in any one of said plurality of queues; and a transmission controller for transmitting said packet stored in said queue in accordance with bandwidth information, a QoS information management unit for storing a packet detection condition, said user information representative of users from and at which said packet is transmitted and received, and said priority order information representative of a priority order of said packet, respectively in correspondence with each other; a QoS search unit for referring to said QoS information management unit to acquire said user information and said priority order information stored in correspondence with said packet detection condition coincident with said header information of said packet; and a relay processor for affixing a control information header including said user information and said priority order information acquired by said QoS search unit to said packet and transferring said packet to said network interface, and said queuing unit performs either one of a first process of referring to a first field of header information of said packet to judge whether said packet is a predetermined packet type, if said packet is the predetermined packet type, referring to a second field of said header information to acquire user information representative of users from and at which said packet is transmitted and received, referring to a third field of said header information to acquire priority order information representative of a priority order of said packet, and determining a storage destination of said packet among said plurality of queues in accordance with said acquired user information and priority order information or a second process of determining a storage destination of said packet among said plurality of queues in accordance with said user information and said priority order information included in said control information header.