Patent ID: 8661205

Claim:
A communication apparatus comprising: a plurality of processing units to perform hierarchically pipeline processing on communication data for a plurality of communication protocols in a hierarchical structure, wherein the plurality of processing units comprise a first processing unit which performs processing for a first communication protocol of a first layer, a second processing unit which performs processing for a second communication protocol of a second layer different from the first layer after the processing for the first communication protocol by the first processing unit, and a third processing unit which performs processing for the second communication protocol of the second layer after a third layer different from the first layer and the second layer is processed; a first memory unit that stores control information for processing of the second communication protocol of the second layer; a second memory unit that is a higher-speed accessible memory than the first memory unit; and a controller that transfers the control information between the first memory unit and the second memory unit, wherein the first processing unit performs processing for the first communication protocol of the first layer and causes the controller to transfer the control information from the first memory unit to the second memory unit, and wherein the second processing unit and the third processing unit perform the processing for the second communication protocol of the second layer using the control information stored in the second memory unit transferred from the first memory unit.