Patent ID: 8693482

Claim:
A method for relaying multimedia communication data operable in an Ethernet network, comprising: defining an audio/video (A/V) domain by a bridge with A/V bridging-capabilities, wherein defining the A/V domain includes transmitting by the bridge an A/V domain identifier of the A/V domain to a set of a plurality of communication devices that are associated with the A/V domain in the Ethernet network; receiving a message by the bridge from one of the plurality of communication devices connected to the bridge and determining that the message is a service discovery message to discover other communication devices in the Ethernet network, wherein the service discovery message includes the A/V domain identifier; determining the A/V domain identified by the A/V domain identifier in the service discovery message and forwarding the service discovery message to the set of the plurality of communication devices associated with the A/V domain in the Ethernet network and filtering the service discovery message from being forwarded to other of the plurality of communication devices not associated with the A/V domain in the Ethernet network such that only the set of the plurality of communication devices in the Ethernet network associated with the A/V domain may be discovered; and in response to detecting the message is not a service discovery message, forwarding the message to one or more of the plurality of communication devices in response to a layer 2 destination address in the message.