LINK AGGREGATION APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTING A TCP FLOW TO MULTIPLE LINKS

摘要

An apparatus performs link aggregation for distributing a transmission control protocol (TCP) flow to multiple links. The apparatus includes multiple TCP processing units each corresponding to a different one of the multiple links, and distributes TCP packets transmitted from a first apparatus on a transmission side to the multiple links. Each TCP processing unit provides each of TCP packets distributed to the each link with an intra-link number. The apparatus manages, for each TCP packet distributed to each link, correspondence relationships between intra-flow numbers assigned in each TCP flow and the intra-link numbers of the TCP packets distributed to the each link, replaces a first reception-acknowledgement response which is transmitted from a second apparatus on a reception side according to the intra-flow numbers of the TCP packets through each link, with a second reception-acknowledgement response to be transmitted according to the intra-link numbers, in accordance with the correspondence relationships.