Patent ID: 6873602

Claim:
A network system comprising: (a) a plurality of terminals which send and receive packets, each terminal belonging to one of a plurality of logical groups; (b) a plurality of switches which interconnect said plurality of terminals by receiving and forwarding the packets originating from said terminals, each of said switches comprising: first storage means for storing information that is used to identify logical group membership of a source terminal of a received packet, query means for sending a query to request information about the logical group membership, when said first storage means has failed to provide sufficient inflation to identify the logical group membership of a particular source terminal, and updating means for updating the information stored in said first storage means according to a response to the query sent by said query means; and (c) a server which controls said plurality of switches, comprising: second storage means for storing a list of identifiers of the terminals, in association with the logical groups to which the terminals belong, searching means for searching said second storage means in response to the query from a requesting switch, transmission means for receiving a search result from said searching means and sending the search result to said requesting switch, supposition means for suggesting a specific logical group to which said source terminal in question is supposed to belong, based on the identifier of the source terminal, when said searching means has failed to provide the requested information; and third storage means for storing a list of the switches being available in the network system, in association with a list of the logical groups that can be assigned to the terminals belonging to each switch's local terminal group, wherein, when the query is received from said requesting switch, said server consults said third storage means to find logical group relevant to said requesting switch, and if the relevant logical groups do not include the logical group to which said source terminal in question is supposed to belong, prevents enrollment of said source terminal in a non-included logical group.