Repeater

A repeater having a hop-by-hop transfer mode in which a packet routing process is executed in a network layer and a cut-through mode in which a packet switching process is executed in a data link layer, for executing a packet routing process by selectively using the modes, comprising:

• traffic monitoring means for detecting a traffic of the hop-by-hop transfer meeting each of a plurality of predetermined conditions that can be cut-through triggers;
• condition selecting means for comparing an amount of the traffic of each of the conditions obtained by said traffic monitoring means with a predetermined threshold value, and selecting a condition under which the amount of traffic exceeds the threshold value as the cut-through trigger;
• and
• routing processing means for determining whether a received packet should be subjected to the cut-through transfer or the hop-by-hop transfer in accordance with the condition selected by said condition selecting means, and executing the routing process in accordance with a result of the determination.