Patent ID: 7292842

Claim:
A terminal comprising: an ad-hoc key management list table having at least one key management list in which authentication header keys with respect to other terminals of an ad-hoc network are held in such a manner as to correspond to the terminal identifiers of said other terminals; means for searching said key management list for said key management list entry containing the transmission terminal identifier of a received frame in order to extract said corresponding authentication header key; and means for confirming whether or not the authentication header of said frame is valid by using said extracted authentication header key, a path table having at least one path list for holding a transfer destination terminal identifier for causing a frame to arrive at another terminal via terminals of the path list in such a manner as to correspond to the terminal identifier of the other terminal; and means for searching said path table for said path list containing an end-point terminal identifier and transmitting said frame to said transfer destination terminal identifier via terminals of the path list, when said authentication header is valid and the end-point terminal identifier of said frame is not the terminal identifier of the other terminal and for discarding said frame when said authentication header is not valid, wherein the terminal and the other terminal's communicate directly, in an ad-hoc manner, exclusive of any network access point.