Patent ID: 7302190

Claim:
An optical transmitting apparatus comprising a plurality of replaceable electro-optic converters each in correspondence with one optical transmission line, wherein at least one of said replaceable electro-optic converters includes an N-to-1 parallel-to-serial converter, a size of the one of said replaceable electro-optic converters being N-times a size of another replaceable electro-optic converter including no parallel-to-serial converter, wherein the optical transmitting apparatus includes a working optical transmitting component and a stand-by optical transmitting component, wherein said at least one of said replaceable electro-optic converters that includes an N-to-1 parallel-to-serial converter is provided for one of the working optical transmitting component and the stand-by optical transmitting component, and said another replaceable electro-optic converter including no parallel-to-serial converter is provided for the other of the working optical transmitting component and the stand-by optical transmitting component.