Patent ID: 7069436

Claim:
A method of processing received data for delivery to a respective one of a plurality of processing devices, each of said plurality of processing devices having a corresponding address, said method comprising: reading an address from a portion of said received data; and decoding said portion of said received data to form decoded data when said portion of said received data is intended for a group of said processing devices that includes said respective one of said plurality of processing devices or when said portion of said received data is intended solely for said respective one of said plurality of processing devices; said decoding step including determining whether said portion of said received data includes encrypted data, and when said portion of said received data includes encrypted data, decrypting said encrypted data using a decryption key that is either a private key or a public key, a determination of whether to decrypt said encrypted data using either an even period decryption key or an odd period decryption key being carried out based on an indicator read from said portion of said received data; said portion of said received data being determined to be intended for said group by comparing at least a segment of said read address to a corresponding segment of a stored address that is associated with said group, said segment of said read address and said corresponding segment of said stored address being identified by a stored mask sequence; and said portion of said received data being determined to be intended solely for said respective one of said plurality of processing devices by comparing said read address to said corresponding address of said respective one of said plurality of processing devices.