Patent ID: 8345696

Claim:
A router controlling a route of packets, comprising: a counter counting an amount of received control packets on a user-identifier-by-user-identifier basis, the control packets being used for managing a network; a discard determining unit comparing a counter value of the counter with a threshold value; and a control packet discarding unit determining whether a received control packet includes a reception control setting that indicates that the control packet is not to be discarded and when the received control packet does include the reception control setting that indicates that the control packet is not to be discarded, transmitting the received control packet to a processor, wherein the processor is a part of the control packet discarding unit; when the received control packet does not include the reception control setting that indicates that the control packet is not to be discarded, transmitting the received control packet including a user identifier for which the discard determining unit determines that the counter value does not exceed the threshold value to the processor and discarding the received control packet including a the user identifier for which the discard determining unit determines that the counter value exceeds the threshold value.