A network switch that outputs multicast packets from a plurality of output ports correlated with a plurality of input ports. A multicast control section designates an input port that has received a route setup command and an output port that outputs the route setup command to be transferred to a destination designated by the route setup command as ports that output the multicast packets. In multicast communications, the multicast packets are transferred to ports other than the input port that has received the multicast packets of the ports designated by a multicast section as those that output the multicast packet.