Patent ID: 8189571

Claim:
A network device coupled to a plurality of network nodes via a network, the network device comprising: a receiving unit that receives multiplexed flow data; a demultiplexing unit that demultiplexes the received multiplexed flow data to each flow; a control unit of cross connecting that holds corresponding information between a channel information, a data flow identifier to identify the flow data, a hierarchized logical path identifier that is included in the received flow data, and an output hierarchized logical path identifier to identify an output hierarchized logical path of flow data; a logically multiplexed frame generating unit that identifies a channel information based on the hierarchized logical path identifier which is included in the received flow data and information of the corresponding information, specifies output hierarchized logical path identifier based on the identified channel information, and add header information including the specified output hierarchized logical path identifier to the demultiplexed flow data; a sending unit that transmits the data flow added the header information, wherein the hierarchized logical path identifier includes a lower path identifier to identify a path between an adjacent communication device and an upper path identifier to extract each data flow from a plurality of data flow; wherein the logically multiplexed frame generating unit decides based on a predetermined priority or usage status of bandwidth upon specifying the plurality of lower path identifier of output hierarchized logical path and adding the decided lower path identifier and an upper path identifier that corresponds to the specified output hierarchized logical path.