Patent ID: 7013354

Claim:
A system for transmitting and receiving data packets formatted in IEEE 1394 standard, comprising: a controller interfaced to an internal bus; a first interface connected to the bus; a first device using a broadcast channel and connected to the first interface: a second interface connected to the bus; and a second device using the broadcast channel and connected to the second interface, wherein the controller is configured for 1) receiving data transmitted from one of the first and second devices via the bus, attaching an identification (ID) header to the received data, the ID header including identification information corresponding to a recipient device determined based at least in part on which of the first and second devices transmitted the data, and retransmitting the received data with the ID header onto the bus; and 2) receiving data with the ID header attached thereto, interpreting the ID header to identify which of the first or second interfaces should receive the data, and transmitting the data over the bus to the identified interface, wherein the ID header is other than a 1394 header formatted in IEEE 1394 standard and contains information about the data, and wherein the 1394 header is built based on information contained in the ID header.