Patent ID: 7187693

Claim:
A communication apparatus to which a LAN and a certain network are connected comprising: a first interface device for sending and receiving data to and from the LAN; a second interface device for sending and receiving data to and from the network; and a monitoring device which monitors operations of the first and second interface devices to set the capacity of a line connected to the network based on the amount of use of a line connected to the LAN, wherein, at the same time of sending and receiving data between the LAN and the network, the communication apparatus dynamically changes the capacity of the line connected to the network based on the amount of use of the line connected to the LAN, wherein the network is a SONET/SDH network, and a mapping scheme for SONET/SDH frames is dynamically set, and wherein after the capacity of the line is changed dynamically, the capacity of the line is restored when the output of loss of pointer (LOP) from receiver communication apparatus is continued to be detected even after a predetermined period elapses.