Patent ID: 8306066

Claim:
A transmission device comprising: a plurality of first interfaces, a first interface of which receives time-division multiplexed signals from an external device in units of frames; a switch which is connected with the first interfaces and sets paths of the signals received from the first interface in regard to each packet; and a plurality of second interfaces, a second interface of which is connected with the switch, receives the signals from the first interface via the switch, and transmits the received signals to a different transmission device in units of packets, wherein the first interface selects signals having the same destination from the signals contained in the received frame and accommodates the selected signals having the same destination in one packet, wherein when the second interface receives signals in units of packets from a different transmission device, the second interface sends each of the received packets to one of the first interfaces of the transmission device or a different transmission device via the switch, and wherein the first interface judges whether the destinations of the signals contained in the received frame are the same or not based on whether or not the signals should be transmitted to the same first interface of a different transmission device, wherein the first interface includes: a buffer unit having areas each of which is used for storing signals contained in each of prescribed time slots of the frame; a cross-connect table in which each of the time slots is associated with a label which is used for recognizing one first interface of a different transmission device to which the signals contained in the time slot should be transmitted; and a packetization processing unit which reads out signals of time slots associated with the same label in the cross-connect table from the buffer unit in regard to each label and accommodates the extracted signals corresponding to the same label in one packet.