In node devices composing a ring network connected to another network with
a redundant node device, a topology table includes redundancy information
of the redundant node device, a transmitter transmits topology
information and the redundancy information of the node devices
themselves, a topology table preparing portion prepares a topology table
based on redundancy information and topology information received from
the redundant node device, and topology information received from the
other node device, and a packet distributor distributes a packet received
over the ring network based on the topology table.