Patent ID: 7733859

Claim:
A packet forwarding apparatus comprising: a plurality of user connection line interfaces each connected to an access line; a plurality of transit network line interfaces each connected to a transit line; a protocol processor for carrying out communication control procedures with each user terminal connected via one of the user connection line interfaces during a Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) connection phase, a Link Control Protocol (LCP) connection phase, an authentication phase, and a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) phase; and a user management table indicating packet forwarding control information for each user terminal, the packet forwarding control information including a user terminal MAC address, a session identifier and an authentication result of the user terminal, wherein said protocol processor is configured to add to said user management table a new table entry indicating the user terminal MAC address and the session ID during execution of the PPPoE phase communication procedure with each user terminal, and to register an affirmative authentication result into the new table entry and notify the user terminal of the authentication result when the user terminal has succeeded in authentication during the authentication phase, and disconnect an LCP session after notifying the user terminal of the authentication result and delete the new table entry from said user management table if the user terminal has failed in the authentication, and wherein when an Ethernet frame having neither a PPPoE header nor a Point to Point Protocol (PPP) header is received, said protocol processor performs forwarding control of the received frame between one of said user connection line interfaces and one of said transit network line interfaces according to said user management table so as to forward the received Ethernet frame when the user management table includes a specific table entry indicating the affirmative authentication result in association with the user terminal MAC address which is specified by a source MAC address or a unicast destination MAC address of the Ethernet frame and to discard the Ethernet frame when the specific table entry does not exist in the user management table.