Patent ID: 7848340

Claim:
A packet ring network system comprising a first packet ring and a second packet ring in which the second packet ring includes a plurality of inter-ring connecting nodes and the first packet ring includes a plurality of inter-ring connecting nodes and each of the plurality of inter-ring connecting nodes of the second packet ring is connected with a corresponding node of the plurality of inter-ring connecting nodes of the first packet ring, one node of the inter-ring connecting nodes provided in the second packet ring comprising: packet transfer circuits that receive a data packet from the first packet ring, encapsulate the data packet to output a broadcast packet and transfer the broadcast packet to the second packet ring; an address setting circuit that sets an address of another inter-ring connecting node provided in the second packet ring as a source address of the broadcast packet to be transmitted to the second packet ring; a TTL (Time To Live) setting circuit that sets a predetermined arrival point with respect to the broadcast packet to be transmitted to the second packet ring; and bidirectional broadcast packet transmitting circuits that transmit the broadcast packet, in which the address of the other inter-ring connecting node is set as the source address by the address setting circuit and the arrival point is set by the TTL setting circuit, in a direction to the other inter-ring connecting node and an opposite direction, respectively.