Patent ID: 8792488

Claim:
A network switch that has a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports correlated with the input ports and that outputs multicast packets from said output ports, comprising: a multicast control information storing section that stores multicast control information that is information that designates an output port that outputs said multicast packet from said plurality of output ports; and a multicast control section that causes said multicast control information storing section to set up a transfer route for transferring said multicast packet, wherein said multicast control section designates an output port correlated with an input port that has received a route setup command that causes the network switch to set up a transfer route and an output port that outputs the route setup command as output ports that transfer said multicast packet such that the route setup command reaches a destination designated by the route setup command when the multicast control section receives the route setup command and the multicast control section outputs the multicast packets to output ports other than the output port correlated with the input port that has received the multicast packet of the output ports designated by the multicast control information stored in said multicast control information storing section when said multicast control section receives the multicast packet.