ETHERNET SWITCH AND A PORT MULTIPLEXING APPARATUS AND METHOD, ESPECIALLY CONCERNED WITH EXTENDING A PHYSICAL PORT INTO A PLURALITY OF LOGICAL PORTS

摘要

PURPOSE: An ethernet switch and a port multiplexing apparatus and a method are provided to use various functions and a large capacity memory in common by connecting a lot of slow ports to one fast switch without a middle bridge. CONSTITUTION: An ethernet switch is composed of a receiving part(200), an information grasp part(210), a storage part(220), a reading part(230), a frame modification part(240), and an output part(250). The receiving part(200) receives a frame having a port identification information through a main port of the ethernet switch. The information grasp part(210) grasps the address and port identification information of a terminal connected to a lower port corresponding to the port identification information received by the receiving part(200). The storage part(220) stores an address table containing the terminal address and port identification information grasped by the information grasp part(210). The reading part(230) searches the address table on the basis of the destination address of a frame and reads a port identification information. The frame modification part(240) adds the read port identification information to the frame. The output part(250) outputs the frame, modified by the frame modification part(240), to a main port connected to a lower port corresponding to the read port identification information.