Patent ID: 7058061

Claim:
A dynamic virtual channel management apparatus, comprising: a detection unit which detects an active virtual channel used by an arriving ATM cell; a management memory unit which manages management information about the active virtual channel detected by the detection unit for each virtual channel, the management memory unit including a translation table and a frame management table, the translation table converting a virtual channel identifier contained in a cell header of the cell into an internal management number for internal management, the frame management table storing information for frame-by-frame processing of each virtual channel in such a manner as to correspond to the internal management number; and a first registration unit that registers a virtual channel identifier of an arriving cell into the management memory unit when the virtual channel identifier of the arriving cell is not managed by the management memory unit, wherein processing on a frame-by-frame basis is applied to cells having the virtual channel identifier that matches that of the active virtual channel managed by the management memory unit.