  We study thermal and chemical equilibration in 'infinite' hadron matter as
well as in finite size relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions using a BUU
cascade transport model that contains resonance and string degrees-of-freedom.
The 'infinite' hadron matter is simulated within a cubic box with periodic
boundary conditions. The various equilibration times depend on baryon density
and energy density and are much shorter for particles consisting of light
quarks then for particles including strangeness. For kaons and antikaons the
chemical equilibration time is found to be larger than $\simeq$ 40 fm/c for all
baryon and energy densities considered. The inclusion of continuum excitations,
i.e. hadron 'strings', leads to a limiting temperature of $T_s\simeq$ 150 MeV.
We, furthermore, study the expansion of a hadronic fireball after
equilibration. The slope parameters of the particles after expansion increase
with their mass; the pions leave the fireball much faster then nucleons and
accelerate subsequently heavier hadrons by rescattering ('pion wind'). If the
system before expansion is close to the limiting temperature $T_s$, the slope
parameters for all particles after expansion practically do not depend on
(initial) energy and baryon density. Finally, the equilibration in relativistic
nucleus-nucleus collision is considered. Since the reaction time here is much
shorter than the equilibration time for strangeness, a chemical equilibrium of
strange particles in heavy-ion collisions is not supported by our transport
calculations. However, the various particle spectra can approximately be
described within the blast model.
