Packet forwarding apparatus and method for multicast packets

The present invention provides a technology for processing packets, such as VoIP packets, with priority. A priority-designating unit designates priority information based on header information. A pointer searching unit refers to a pointer table to obtain pointer information corresponding to a destination address. A sorting unit sorts the pointer information into a high-priority queue and a low-priority queue according to the priority information. A next queue holds pointer information obtained from a destination information table. A scheduler extracts and outputs the pointer information from each queue in the following order of priority: the next queue, a high-priority queue, and a low-priority queue. A destination-information-table searching unit obtains destination information and/or the pointer information from the destination information table based on the pointer information, and outputs the destination information to a packet forwarding and duplicating unit and outputs the pointer information to the next queue.