Patent ID: 7463632

Claim:
A communication system for transferring packet data from a transmitter side to a receiver side via a network, comprising, on the transmitter side, identifier adding means for deciding whether or not packet data is transmitted exceeding a guaranteed bandwidth based on a preset guaranteed bandwidth set in advance with respect to the packet data to be transferred and adding a first identifier to the packet data when the packet data is transmitted without exceeding the guaranteed bandwidth, while adding a second identifier to the packet data when the packet data is transmitted exceeding the guaranteed bandwidth, transmitting means for transmitting the packet data to which the identifier has been added to the network; a relay unit for receiving packet data transferred via the network and further transferring the received packet data to the receiver side; router setting means between the transmitter side and receiver side for selecting one or more relay units; and registering means for registering identifiers corresponding to packet data to be transferred without exceeding the preset guaranteed bandwidth and guaranteed bandwidths thereof, wherein, when a plurality of receivers on the receiver side, the same multi-cast communication use IP address is assigned to each receiver, and, when multi-cast communication is carried out from the transmitter side with respect to the plurality of receivers, the identifier contains an IP address on the transmitter side, the multi-cast communication use IP address on the receiver side, a port number on the transmitter side, and a port number on the receiver side.