Patent ID: 8457012

Claim:
A data transfer apparatus, comprising: a plurality of interfaces connected to one or more communication routes; a buffer that stores data temporarily; and a buffer control unit that controls the buffer, wherein the plurality of interfaces includes a first interface and a second interface, wherein the plurality of communication routes includes a first communication route connected to the first interface and a second communication connected to the second interface, wherein the first interface is configured to receive sequentially ordered data from the first route and the second interface is configured to receive the sequentially ordered data from the second routes, wherein the sequentially ordered data includes a first data and a second data that is sequentially ordered subsequent to the first data wherein the buffer control unit, if the data transfer apparatus receives the second data from the first communication route before receiving the first data, stores the received second data in the buffer, wherein the buffer control unit, if the data transfer apparatus receives the second data from the first communication route before receiving the first data and then receives the first data from the second communication route, stores the received first data in the buffer, reads the first and second data in sequential order from the buffer, and sends the first and second data to one of the plurality of interfaces, wherein the buffer control unit, if the data transfer apparatus receives the second data from both the first and second communication routes before receiving the first data, reads the second data from the buffer and sends the second data to one of the plurality of interfaces, and wherein the buffer control unit, if the data transfer apparatus receives the second data from the first communication route before receiving the first data and has not received the first data upon expiration of a predetermined waiting time, reads the second data from the buffer and sends the second data to one of the plurality of interfaces.