Patent ID: 8594101

Claim:
A packet relay apparatus which includes a plurality of ports comprising: a partition information storing unit which stores a correspondence between port information for identifying each of a plurality of ports included in a partition and partition information for identifying the partition configured for the packet relay apparatus; a VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) information storing unit which stores a correspondence between the port information for identifying a port used for transmission and/or reception of a packet transmitted by an apparatus belonging to a virtual network and VLAN information for identifying the virtual network; an identification unit which identifies the port information for identifying a port included in the partition corresponding to a reception port receiving the packet, from the partition information storing unit; a determination unit which identifies reception VLAN information which is the VLAN information set for the received packet and determines whether the port information identified by the identification unit is included in the port information corresponded to the identified reception VLAN information and stored in the VLAN information storing unit; and a transmission unit which transmits the packet from a transmission port corresponding to port information that is determined to be corresponded to the identified reception VLAN information by the determination unit when the port information identified by the identification unit is included in the port information corresponded to the identified reception VLAN information and both the reception and transmission ports are included in the same partition, and otherwise discards the packet.