Method of managing hop-count in label switching network and node apparatus

A node apparatus comprising:

• a label switching unit configured to perform a label switching operation on a packet transferred on a label switched path by using an input label and an output label assigned to a packet stream including the packet;
• and
• a control message processing unit configured to exchange with an upstream node a first message for assigning the input label and exchange with a downstream node a second message for assigning the output label, one of the first and second messages notifying said node apparatus of a hop-count regarding the label switched path, by determining whether or not said node apparatus is to update by the label switching unit information included in the packet, the information being to represent how many nodes through which the packet has passed, and when said node apparatus determines not to update said information, by writing into another one of the first and second messages an incremented hop-count obtained by incrementing the hop-count regarding the label switched path, and when said node apparatus determines to update said information, by writing into said another one of the first and second messages data indicating that said information is to be updated.