Patent ID: 7818439

Claim:
A transmission apparatus including at least one processor for transmitting data in a predetermined communication protocol, the transmission apparatus comprising: storing means for storing data; first communication-protocol-processing means for carrying out necessary processing in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol on image and/or audio information as data to be transmitted by using hardware; second communication-protocol-processing means for carrying out necessary processing in accordance with the predetermined communication protocol on predetermined information other than said image and/or audio information as data to be transmitted by using software; transmission means for outputting and transmitting data being transmitted; and connection-switching means capable of selecting said first communication-protocol-processing means or said second communication-protocol-processing means as means to be connected to said transmission means so as to select transmitted data processed by said first communication-protocol-processing means, taking precedence of transmitted data processed by said second communication-protocol-processing means, wherein the data is transmitted in packets, and the predetermined information other than the image and/or audio information and the image and/or audio information are transmitted in different packets, and packets of the predetermined information other than the image and/or audio information and the image and/or audio information are transmitted on a time-division basis, a time division being set in accordance with a ratio of a number of transferred packets processed by the hardware to a number of transferred packets processed by the software, wherein the connection-switching means selects the first communication-protocol-processing means or the second communication-protocol-processing means based on an amount of data received per unit time.