Communication system and network relay device

1. A communication system comprising:

a first switching device and a second switching device each having a plurality of ports including a bridging port and a first port, and being connected to each other by a communication line via the bridging port; and

a third switching device being connected to the first port of the first switching device and the first port of the second switching device via different communication lines, and setting link aggregation for ports to be connection sources of the communication lines,

wherein each of the first switching device and the second switching device has:

an address table indicating a relation between the plurality of ports owned by the first switching device and the second switching device and addresses existing ahead of the plurality of ports; and

a link table by which the first port of the first switching device and the first port of the second switching device logically function as one port,

when the first switching device receives a frame at the first port, the first switching device creates abridging frame containing a transmission source address contained in the received frame and an identifier of the first port, and transfers the bridging frame from the bridging port toward the second switching device,

when the second switching device receives the bridging frame at the bridging port, the second switching device detects the identifier of the first port and the transmission source address from the bridging frame, and updates the address table of the second switching device based on the identifier of the first port and the transmission source address,

wherein, when the first port receives a first frame from a unicast transmission, the first switching device creates the bridging frame containing a first identifier in addition to the transmission source address and the identifier of the first port,

when the second switching device detects the first identifier from the bridging frame received at the bridging port, the second switching device updates the address table and discards the bridging frame,

wherein, when the first port receives a second frame from a non-unicast transmission, the first switching device creates a third frame as the bridging frame and transfers the bridging frame from the bridging port, the third frame being obtained by further adding a second identifier to the second frame in addition to the identifier of the first port, and

when the second switching device detects the second identifier from the bridging frame received at the bridging port, the second switching device updates the address table and restores the bridging frame to a normal frame, and then, transfers the normal frame from a predetermined port.

2. The communication system according to claim 1 ,

wherein, when the method of transferring the frame received at the first port is the unicast operation, and besides, when a limited range of a communication bandwidth set for the bridging port is satisfied, the first switching device transfers the bridging frame from the bridging port.

3. A network relay device comprising:

a plurality of ports including a first port and a bridging port to be connected to another network relay device different from the network relay device via a communication line;

an address table indicating a relation between the plurality of ports and addresses existing ahead of the plurality of ports; and

a link table by which the first port of the network relay device and a first port of the another network relay device logically function as one port,

wherein, when the first port receives a frame, a bridging frame containing a transmission source address contained in the received frame and an identifier of the port which has received is created, and the bridging frame is transferred from the bridging port to the another network relay device,

when the bridging frame is received from the another network relay device via the bridging port, an identifier of the port which has received and the transmission source address are detected from the bridging frame, and the address table is updated based on the identifier of the port which has received and the transmission source address,

wherein, when the first port receives a first frame from a unicast transmission, the bridging frame, containing a first identifier in addition to the transmission source address and the identifier of the port which has received the first frame, is created,

when the first identifier is detected from the bridging frame received at the bridging port, the address table is updated, and the bridging frame is discarded,

wherein, when the first port receives a second frame from a non-unicast transmission, a third frame is created as the bridging frame, and the bridging frame is transferred from the bridging port, the third frame being obtained by further adding a second identifier to the second frame in addition to the identifier of the first port, and

when the second identifier is detected from the bridging frame received at the bridging port, the address table is updated, and the bridging frame is restored to a normal frame, and then, the normal frame is transferred from a predetermined port.

4. The network relay device according to claim 1 ,

wherein, when the method of transferring the frame received at the first port is the unicast operation, and besides, when a limited range of a communication bandwidth set for the bridging port is satisfied, the bridging frame is transferred from the bridging port.