Network system

Abstract

A hub apparatus which has a plurality of ports for connecting a network portion including one or a plurality of communicating apparatuses and relays the transmission and reception of a communication packet between the communicating apparatuses through the ports. The hub apparatus has port information storing means for storing, every said port, port information regarding the network portion which includes at least information indicating whether the number of communicating apparatuses which the network portion connected to each port has is equal to 1 or a plural number, and means for determining communicating forms of transmission, non-transmission, and a state of the communication packet for transmitting on the basis of the port information corresponding to the port to which the communication packet is sent.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.