Patent ID: 7817582

Claim:
A path controller comprising: a routing table for storing a plurality of leaves including destination address information and path information corresponding to said destination address information in a tree structure, said tree structure including a plurality of member trees having a common root, wherein said common root includes a plurality of direct tables, wherein said plurality of direct tables correspond to said plurality of member trees in such a manner that both mutually have the same combination information; search device for searching said plurality of member trees by using the destination address information included in a received frame as a search key; receiving and transferring means for receiving said frame and transferring said received frame on the basis of the path information included in the leaves searched for by said search device; and creation means for creating the tree structure comprising the plurality of member trees within said routing table based on information on the number of member trees inputted from the outside; wherein said creation means receives a new leaf from the outside, and registers said new leaf with a member tree having the smallest number of registered leaves among said plurality of member trees.