AXI read burst request and response

Say the Initiator did the read request with 16 beats. Does AXI standard require the response to come in the same response or it can come in 16 separate single transactions? 

The question comes from the context of SoC architecture with say AXI4 Initiator is connected through the NOC to AXI-lite. Or another version is when the transaction turns to be a slit one between different Targets. Should the NOC combine all the responses to create the same burst size as Initiator requested or this is not mandatory?

Thanks,

Khach