COMMUNICATION APPARATUS, AND CAM FAILURE DIAGNOSIS METHOD

A communication apparatus comprises a CAM, an action determination unit, and a CAM diagnosis unit. The CAM includes, a plurality of entries each storing therein at least a portion of header information of frame, and a search circuit for each entry configured to determine whether or not a search key matches data stored at the entry. The search key is correlated with information indicating whether or not an entry matching the search key and an expected value of a search result including identification information of an entry matching the search key. The CAM diagnosis unit causes the CAM to search for an entry matching the search key. The CAM diagnosis unit diagnoses a failure occurring at the search circuit of an entry to be the test object when the result of the search does not match the expected value of a search result correlated to the search key.