Bridge for the IEEE 1394 bus

摘要

An initialization of local buses 14a to 14n, a definition of topology and a management of isochronous resources are performed for every local bus. Each of portals 12a to 12n includes an asynchronous packet discriminator 215 which discriminates an asynchronous packet sent by a terminal device and transfers it. The portals 12a to 12n discriminate asynchronous packets sent by terminal devices in order to acquire isochronous resources and secure isochronous resources on different buses. The portals 12a to 12n transfer isochronous packets to different local buses by associating a received isochronous packet with a plug on the bridge bus side and a plug on the local bus side with an isochronous channel on the bus. Thus, the utilization efficiency of bus resource in a serial bus network is improved and a packet sent from a terminal device can be transferred to a different bus.