Signal transfer system, terminal function apparatus, substitute transfer agent apparatus and signal transfer method

A terminal function device, comprising:

• a plurality of physical port transmitting/receiving units to each of which a physical line is connected, and that perform transmission/reception of signals through the physical lines;
• a transfer processing unit that connects to each of the physical port transmitting/receiving units and that performs transfer processing of signals output by the physical port transmitting/receiving unit, or signals output to the physical port transmitting/receiving units;
• and
• a terminal-side logical path transmitting/receiving unit that generates a logical path to be correlated with the physical port transmitting/receiving unit on one of the physical lines, and that, in a case of receiving a signal from the transfer processing unit, sends out the signal to a logical path corresponding to the physical port transmitting/receiving unit that received this signal, and in a case of receiving a signal through the logical path, outputs the signal to the transfer processing unit with the physical port transmitting/receiving unit corresponding the logical path that received this signal specified as a transfer destination thereof.

A signal transfer method in a signal transfer system including a terminal function device that includes a plurality of physical port transmitting/receiving units that perform transmission/reception of signals through physical lines respectively connected thereto, and a proxy transfer agent device that connects to the terminal function device through one of the physical lines, the method comprising:

• the terminal function device and the proxy transfer agent device generating, on the mutually-connecting physical lines, logical paths to be correlated with the physical port transmitting/receiving units;
• the terminal function device, in a case of receiving a signal received at one of the physical port transmitting/receiving units, sending the signal out to a logical path corresponding to the physical port transmitting/receiving unit that received this signal;
• the proxy transfer agent device, in a case of receiving a signal through the logical path, correlating the signal with information identifying the physical port transmitting/receiving unit corresponding to the logical path that received this signal, and transferring the information along with the signal;
• the proxy transfer agent device, in a case of sending out a signal to the logical path, sending out the signal to the logical path corresponding to the physical port transmitting/receiving unit specified as a transfer destination of the signal;
• and
• the terminal function device, in a case of receiving a signal through the logical path, sending out the signal from the physical port transmitting/receiving unit corresponding to the logical path that received the signal.