Patent ID: 8817791

Claim:
An apparatus for virtualizing multiple terminals, comprising: one or more processors configured to: virtualize a group of a plurality of transmitter terminals of a first user and a group of receiver terminals of a second user through changes of source and a destination addresses of a packet that is to be transmitted from an active transmitter of the transmitter terminal group to an active receiver of the receiver terminal group so that the transmitter terminal group and the receiver terminal group may be recognized as if they were each a single terminal, the first user being assigned a first unique identification, the second user being assigned a second unique identification, each of the plurality of transmitter terminals being assigned a unique transmitter identification, and each of the plurality of receiver terminals being assigned a unique receiver identification; receive the packet to be transmitted from the active transmitter of the transmitter terminal group, the packet being received with the unique transmitter identification of the active transmitter as a source address and the second unique identification as a destination address; after receiving the packet, change the source address of the packet from the unique transmitter identification of the active transmitter to the first unique identification and change the destination address of the packet from the second unique identification to the unique receiver identification of the active receiver; and transmit the packet with the changed source address and destination address to the active receiver.