Transport apparatus and transport method

A transport apparatus comprising:

• a client signal transceiving unit which transceives a client signal;
• a mapping unit which maps the received client signal to a first transport frame;
• a transmission-side rate conversion unit which performs rate conversion on the first transport frame to generate a second transport frame;
• a line signal transceiving unit which converts the second transport frame obtained by the rate conversion into an optical signal, transmits the converted optical signal as a line signal, converts a received line signal into an electrical signal, and outputs an electrical line signal;
• a reception-side rate conversion unit which performs rate conversion on a third transport frame included in the electrical line signal to generate a fourth transport frame;
• and
• a demapping unit which extracts a client signal from the fourth transport frame and outputs the extracted client signal to the client signal transceiving unit.

A transport method comprising:

• a step of receiving a client signal;
• a step of transferring a branched signal obtained by branching a signal to be transmitted and a merged signal obtained by merging received signals between each of a plurality of signal processing units and another signal processing unit via an inter-chip wiring that couples the plurality of signal processing units;
• a step of performing signal processing on the client signal in the plurality of signal processing units to generate a line signal to be transmitted;
• a step of performing optic-electric conversion on the line signal to be transmitted and transmitting an optical line signal;
• a step of performing optic-electric conversion on a received line signal to output an electrical line signal;
• a step of performing signal processing on the electrical line signal in the plurality of signal processing units to generate a client signal;
• and
• a step of transmitting the generated client signal.