Patent ID: 8654626

Claim:
A packet sorting device, comprising: a sorting buffer shared by a plurality of communication flows; a flow information table storing expected sequence numbers so that said expected sequence numbers are each correlated with communication flow information which identifies a communication flow; and a control section which determines, when receiving one of a series of packets transmitted in a transmission order, whether said received one of said received packets is received in an order different from the transmission order of said series of packets, by extracting communication flow information and a sequence number included in said received one of said series of packets, and determining whether the sequence number extracted from said received one of said series of packets is equal to an expected sequence number which is correlated in the flow information table with the communication flow information included in said received one of said series of packets, wherein, when determining said received one of said series of packets is not received in the transmission order, said control section stores said received one of said series of packets as a disorder packet and communication flow information of the disorder packet in said sorting buffer so that the disorder packet and the communication flow information of the disorder packet are correlated, wherein said control section sorts said series of packets in a correct order by using said sorting buffer, and wherein said communication flow information of the disorder packet identifies the communication flow which the disorder packet belongs to.