Patent ID: 8040889

Claim:
A packet forwarding device that has a plurality of input lines and a plurality of output lines, and when a packet is inputted into the input line, forwards the packet to one or more than one output line, comprising: a plurality of packet processing circuits for performing one or more than one processing among: a decision processing of deciding an output line in which the packet is forwarded by header information of the packet, a decision processing of deciding presence or absence of forwarding of the packet, a decision processing of deciding forwarding priority of the packet, and a processing of collecting statistical information of a flow to which the packet belongs; a circuit number decision circuit that decides a quantity of the packet processing circuits to be operative for packet processing and notifies at least one of the packet processing circuits to either start or stop packet processing according to a decision result; and a distribution circuit for distributing the processing to each of the packet processing circuits in operation for each packet.