Patent ID: 7496382

Claim:
A communication system comprising: plural switching devices, each comprising plural ports; at least one terminal operable to be connected to any of the plural ports of said plural switching devices; and a management device comprising a configuration information generating unit operable to generate configuration information of a network composed of said plural switching devices and said at least one terminal, wherein each of said plural switching devices further comprises a MAC address table operable to store MAC address information for each of the plural ports, and wherein at least one of said at least one terminal comprises: a packet receiving unit operable to receive a packet; a packet sending unit operable to send a packet; a link-state detecting unit operable to detect a link-up for each of said plural switching devices; and a configuration-change notifying unit operable, when the link-state detecting unit detects a link-up, to send a notice of a change of a network configuration to said management device via the packet sending unit.