Patent ID: 7496679

Claim:
A packet communication apparatus comprising: a plurality of communication means for transmitting and receiving packets including multimedia data, to and from a plurality of communication objects, wherein said plurality of communication objects each has a function of transmitting packets without priority information, wherein the plurality of communication objects is connected by an Ethernet network, wherein the packet communication apparatus has a function of receiving packets with or without priority information, and includes a terminal processing function for communicating by packets with said communication objects, and wherein the packet communication apparatus includes a relay function for relaying packets among said communication objects; packet generating and processing means for generating packets to be transmitted by said plurality of communication means and for processing packets received by said plurality of communication means for communication with the plurality of communication objects; transfer packet buffer means for storing a transfer packet, wherein said packet communication apparatus transfers the transfer packet from one communication object of the plurality of communication objects to another communication object of the plurality of communication objects; packet conversion means for converting a transmission packet generated by said packet generating and processing means, and for converting a transfer packet to be transmitted from said plurality of communication means, wherein, as a result of converting by the packet conversion means, a communication object for a destination of the transmission packet can receive the transmission packet, and a communication object for a destination of the reception packet can receive the reception packet, wherein said packet conversion means has a conversion function of converting a packet with a priority information into a packet without a priority information, and wherein said packet conversion means has a conversion function of converting a packet without priority information into a packet with priority information; and transfer control means for outputting, when the reception packet received by said communication means is judged as the transfer packet, the reception packet to said transfer buffer means, for outputting the transmission packet to said communication means corresponding to the communication object at a destination of the transmission packet generated by said packet generating and processing means, and for outputting the transfer packet to said communication means corresponding to the communication object at a destination of the transfer packet stored in said transfer buffer means.