Patent ID: 8824899

Claim:
A terminal device accommodating a plurality of passive optical networks comprising: a plurality of optical subscriber units connected to said plurality of passive optical networks respectively; and a control unit for performing registration processing for registering in said terminal device, a plurality of subscriber devices connected to said plurality of passive optical networks and processing for bandwidth allocation for said plurality of subscriber devices, said control unit being configured to associate each of said plurality of optical subscriber units with a corresponding one of a plurality of virtual optical subscriber units, to register each of said subscriber devices in a corresponding one of said virtual optical subscriber units in said registration processing, and to generate a control message for performing said registration processing and a control message for performing said processing for bandwidth allocation, and when a communication path is changed between one of said plurality of passive optical networks and an associated one of said plurality of optical subscriber units, wherein the communication path is used for the control messages, said control unit to change said virtual optical subscriber unit from being associated with the optical subscriber unit corresponding to the communication path that is changed to a different one of the optical subscriber units corresponding to a different communication path while also maintaining a state of registration in which said plurality of subscriber devices are registered in said virtual optical subscriber unit.