Patent ID: 7856016

Claim:
An access control method for a network including a plurality of packet communication apparatuses, the method comprising: an authentication server sending authentication result information and user attribute information to a sender packet communication apparatus; said sender packet communication apparatus sending the authentication result information to a user terminal which a user uses and storing the user attribute information of said user and identification information of said user terminal by relating to each other; said sender packet communication apparatus further receiving a packet sent from said user terminal, searching for the user attribute information of said user stored in said sender packet communication apparatus by using packet sender identification information contained in said received packet as a key, said sender packet communication apparatus further attaching the user attribute information to the packet transmitted by said user terminal; and a communication control mechanism, within an end system corresponding to a destination packet communication apparatus or a packet receiving apparatus, performing access control based on the user attribute information attached to the packet, wherein the user attribute information includes at least one of security information and access right information, the security information being previously set for each user and the access right information indicating a user access right previously set for each user.