Line concentrator and information processing system using the same, assigning transmitted data to all devices in the group of information processing devices

Abstract

A line concentrator classifies printers connected via a communications network into groups according to the capabilities of the printers and includes a storage section which stores a VLAN table classifying the printers into groups and listing virtual addresses corresponding to the respective groups. When a monitoring section receives data addressed to a virtual address, it refers to the VLAN table and performs controls so as to transmit the received data to all of the printers belonging to the group corresponding to the virtual address. Thus, it is possible to eliminate the problem, such as concentration of jobs to a specific information processing device, and to provide a line concentrator capable of rapidly performing data transfer processing.