Patent ID: 8345687

Claim:
An inter-network connection system to be located between a first communications network to which said system belongs and a second communications network, for connecting the first and second communications networks to each other, said system comprising: an interface board having a plurality of input/output ports, each input/output port being configured to receive/output traffic for processing the traffic in a lower layer; an upper layer processing board configured to process traffic in an upper layer; and an inter-board connection board intervening in information transfer between said interface board and said upper layer processing board, said interface board comprising: a port group information storage configured to store information on a plurality of port groups, each port group being formed by a pair of a first input/output port and a second input/output port among the plurality of input/output ports, so that the plurality of port groups define a one-to-one mapping between the first input/output port and the second input/output port, the first input/output port being configured to input/output traffic from/to the first communications network, the second input/output port being configured to input/output traffic from/to the second communications network; a session information storage configured to store information about a session which is established; a lower layer processor configured to process traffic in the lower layer and store information on a port group in said port group information storage; a route setter configured to set a route of particular traffic, which is to be processed only in the lower layer or to be additionally processed in the upper layer, so that, when the particular traffic is input through one of the pair of the input/output ports of a particular port group, the particular traffic, after being processed at least in the lower layer processor, is output through the other of the pair of the input/output ports of the particular port group according to information stored in said port group information storage; and a process determiner configured to reference session identification information of inputted traffic and session information stored in said session information storage to determine whether the inputted traffic is to be processed only in the lower layer or to be additionally processed in the upper layer so as to cause, when the inputted traffic is to be processed in the upper layer, the traffic to be transferred to said upper layer processing board.