Packet communication network and packet transfer control method

A packet transfer apparatus having a plurality of input and output ports, for transferring a received packet from each of the input ports to any of the output ports in accordance with header information, comprising:

• a routing table storing routing information in correspondence with destination information to be included in a header of the received packet;
• means for autonomously collecting the routing information in cooperation with other packet communication apparatuses forming a communication network, and updating said routing table;
• means for updating said routing table on the basis of routing information designated by a management apparatus;
• and
• means for determining a destination of a received packet with reference to said routing table by giving priority on the routing information designated by said management apparatus over the routing information autonomously collected and routing the received packet to any of said output ports.

A packet communication network comprising:

• a plurality of packet transfer apparatuses each belonging to any of subnetworks constructing a packet communication network;
• a plurality of sub management apparatuses each connected to a group of packet transfer apparatuses included in a subnetwork under the control of the sub management apparatus;
• and
• a main management apparatus connected to said plurality of sub management apparatuses,
• said main management apparatus having means for determining a route among subnetworks with respect to a connection for which a bandwidth is reserved and instructing each of sub management apparatuses controlling subnetworks on the route to select a route within the subnetwork, and
• said sub management apparatus having:
• means for determining a route within the subnetwork under the control of the sub management apparatus in response to the route selection instruction from said main management apparatus;
• and means for instructing each of packet transfer apparatuses on the route in said subnetwork to set routing information.