COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, CONTROL APPARATUS, PACKET FORWARDING PATH CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM

A communication system includes: a plurality of data forwarding nodes each including a packet processing unit processing an incoming packet in accordance with a packet handling operation in which a process to be applied to a packet and a matching rule for specifying a packet to which the process is applied are associated with each other; and a control apparatus capable of using at least two logical network topologies each obtained by applying a different path calculation policy to a physical network topology formed by the plurality of data forwarding nodes, selecting a logical network topology determined per data traffic and determining a packet forwarding path, and setting a packet handling operation realizing the packet forwarding path in data forwarding nodes on the packet forwarding path.