In accordance with an instruction from a network monitoring device (4), a
transmission terminal (2T) serving as a source of video information
transmits a certain amount of monitoring test packets differentiated from
the usual multicast frames. Pass status information (for example, MIB
information) generated by routers (3) receiving and passing through the
continuous test packets is collected at the network monitoring device
(4). The device (4) uses the collected pass status information and
topology information which the device (4) holds by itself so as to judge
the direction of transmission of the test packets at the interface of
each router (3) and specifies the multicast tree based on the results of
judgment.