Switch

A switch which includes a plurality of ports, each being assigned to any of groups into which the switch is logically partitioned using Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs), and outputs a packet received at any of the ports to a port corresponding to a destination address of the packet, the switch comprising:

• recording means in which partition information and an address table are recorded, the partition information indicating which of extended VLAN groups into which the ports are further logically partitioned each of the ports is assigned to, and the address table containing an entry in which a destination address, an output port corresponding to the destination address and a VLAN group are associated with each other;
• acquisition means for acquiring a source address from the packet received on the port and acquiring group information of a VLAN to which the packet belongs from the packet or an attribute of the port;
• identification means for identifying group information of an extended VLAN to which the port at which the packet has been received is allocated by referring to the partition information recorded in the recording means;
• registration means for registering in the address table the source address acquired by the acquisition means as the destination address, the port at which the packet has been received as the output port corresponding to the destination address, and the group information of the VLAN acquired by the acquisition means as the VLAN group in association with each other;
• and
• masking means for masking all data rows in which an extended VLAN group is registered excluding the extended VLAN group identified by the identification means among the data rows registered in the address table.

A switch which includes a plurality of ports, each being assigned to any of groups into which the switch is logically partitioned using Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs), and outputs a packet received at any of the ports to a port corresponding to a destination address of the packet, the switch comprising:

• recording means in which partition information, an address table, and a setting table are recorded, the partition information indicating which of extended VLAN groups into which the ports are further logically partitioned each of the ports is assigned to, the address table containing an entry in which a destination address, an output port corresponding to the destination address and a VLAN group are associated with each other, and the setting table containing an entry for each of the ports in which a setting indicating whether searching for a port corresponding to a destination address is enabled or disabled is made;
• acquisition means for acquiring a source address from the packet received on the port and acquiring group information of a VLAN to which the packet belongs from the packet or an attribute of the port;
• identification means for identifying group information of an extended VLAN to which the port at which the packet has been received is allocated by referring to the partition information recorded in the recording means;
• and
• registration means for registering in the address table the source address acquired by the acquisition means as the destination address, the port at which the packet has been received as the output port corresponding to the destination address, and the group information of the VLAN acquired by the acquisition means as the VLAN group in association with each other.