Patent ID: 8154999

Claim:
A packet forwarding control method to be performed when a terminal is connected to a wide-area network, the method comprising: transmitting, from the terminal to a management server, a request packet for requesting assignment of specific header information to be set in each packet that the terminal transmits to the wide-area network; assigning the specific header information to the terminal by the management server upon the management server receiving the request packet; managing, by an apparatus located on a communication path between the terminal and the management server, a quantity of specific header information assigned to the terminal and controlling forwarding of the request packet to the management server based on the quantity of assigned specific header information for the terminal, and discarding the request packet received from the terminal or a received packet transmitted from the management server to the terminal, by the apparatus, upon a determination that the quantity of assigned specific header information would exceed a limit value if new specific header information is assigned to the terminal, wherein the apparatus stores the specific header information assigned to the terminal in a memory in association with a fixed address of the terminal and a port identifier of an input port that received the request packet so as to manage the quantity of assigned specific header information using the fixed address for the terminal, and wherein, if the port identifier of the input port that received the request packet is a new port identifier that is different from a port identifier previously-stored in the memory in association with the fixed address of the terminal, the apparatus determines that the terminal has moved from a first area of the input port having the previously-stored port identifier to a second area of the input port having the new port identifier, changes the previously-stored port identifier in the memory to the new port identifier, and controls the forwarding of the request packet based on the quantity of assigned specific header information stored in the memory in association with the fixed address and the new port identifier.