Patent ID: 7630292

Claim:
A data relay apparatus that relays data in a network in which a failure recovery is carried out, when a failure occurs at any point on a working path that is being used as a path through which the data is transferred via a plurality of data relay apparatuses, by switching the working path to a backup path for taking a detour around a point of the failure, the data relay apparatus comprising: a failure-recovery-information storing unit that stores failure-recovery information in which three paths that are the working path, the backup path and a failure-notifying-message transferring path are associated with one another, the failure-recovery-information storing unit storing the failure-recovery information only for a backup path in which the data relay apparatus becomes a start point, the failure-notifying-message transferring path being exclusively used for transferring failure notifying messages; a failure-occurrence-notification receiving unit that receives a failure-occurrence notification via the failure-notifying-message transferring path, the failure-occurrence notification indicating that the failure has occurred in the working path; and a path-switch processing unit that searches for a backup path corresponding to the working path on which the failure has occurred, based on the failure-recovery information, and carries out a path-switch process, when the backup path is searched, in such a manner that the data to be transferred using the working path in which the failure has occurred is transferred using the backup path.