US Patent 7630292 Data relay apparatus and data relay method

A failure-recovery-information storing unit stores failure-recovery information in which a working path is associated with a backup path. A failure-occurrence-notification receiving unit receives a failure-occurrence notification indicating that a failure has occurred in the working path. A backup-path searching unit searches for a backup path corresponding to the working path on which the failure has occurred, based on the failure-recovery information. A path-switch processing unit carries out a path-switch process, in such a manner that the data to be transferred using the working path in which the failure has occurred is transferred using the backup path.