A communications apparatus (2) in a communications network (100 or 110) is
provided for communication among a plurality of communication
apparatuses. The communications apparatus (2) routes messages for
neighboring apparatuses. The communications apparatus (2) includes a
memory (4, 7 or 8), a processor (3) and a transceiver (6). The memory has
a plurality of routing managers (12, 13, and 14) stored thereon, and each
manager maintains at least one network table including one or more
entries. The processor 3 selects at least one network table from those
maintained by the plurality of routing managers (12, 13 and 14) that are
stored in the memory (4, 7 or 8), based on an address indicator and/or on
a type-of-service of a message. The processor 3 extracts network
information from the selected network table or tables. The processor (3)
also controls transmission of the message according to the extracted
network information. The transceiver (6) transmits and receives messages.