Patent ID: 6970478

Claim:
A packet transfer method comprising: causing a transmission-source access network to generate at least one packet to be transferred to a destination access network, and to transmit said at least one packet to a transmission-source packet transfer apparatus connected to said transmission-source access network; causing said transmission-source packet transfer apparatus to convert said at least one packet into a superpacket having a length n times (n is an integer of not less than 2) larger than a fixed-length cell, said superpacket serving as a switching unit of relay means arranged on a network, and to send the superpacket to said network; causing said network to relay the superpacket using said relay means, and to transfer the superpacket to a destination packet transfer apparatus connected to said destination access network; and causing said destination packet transfer apparatus to reassemble said at least one packet generated by said transmission-source access network on the basis of the superpacket transferred from said network, and to send said at least one packet to said destination access network, wherein when said at least one packet cannot fit the superpacket, the forming means places a portion of the packet into the superpacket and another portion of the packet into another superpacket, and wherein, when the superpacket is occupied with a single packet or a portion of the single packet, the forming means sets a single packet occupation field to ON.