Patent ID: 7376085

Claim:
A packet transferring apparatus that outputs an inputted packet to any one of a plurality of output lines and is connected to a node, the apparatus comprising: a flow detecting unit for deciding a flow ID that is an identifier of a flow bundle to which the inputted packet belongs according to information written in a header of the packet; and a packet transmitting unit for adding the decided flow ID to the packet and sending the packet to the node, wherein the node comprises a flow processing unit for performing at least one of packet processings including bandwidth monitoring, statistical information collecting, filtering, and priority-based transferring according to the flow ID, wherein the flow detecting unit includes a contents addressable memory having a plurality of flow entries, each including information written in a packet header, the memory being configured to determine a matching/unmatching between the header information of each inputted packet and each of the plurality of flow entries so as to output matching addresses which are addresses of matched flow entries; and an address translating unit for translating a plurality of the matching addresses to one flow ID.