Patent ID: 11956098
Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A communication apparatus comprising:
a MAC (Media Access Control) unit that is configured as a component that can be interchanged and that processes a main signal including a payload, and determines a communication timing of the main signal;
a communication unit that is a communication interface configured as a component that can be interchanged, and that performs at least one of transmission processing for changing, when Electrical-to-Optical (E/O) converting the main signal and transmitting the main signal to a communication counterpart device, a transmission condition based on the communication timing acquired from the MAC (Media Access Control) unit, and reception processing for changing, when O/E converting the main signal received from the communication counterpart device, a reception condition based on the communication timing acquired from the MAC (Media Access Control) unit;
a main signal transmission line that is an interface through which the main signal is transmitted between the MAC (Media Access Control) unit and the communication unit; and
a control information transmission line that is an interface that is provided separately from the main signal transmission line, and through which communication timing data that is data indicating the communication timing is transmitted from the MAC (Media Access Control) unit to the communication unit, wherein the MAC unit transmits the communication timing data in a format that is different from the frame to the communication unit via the control information transmission line.