MULTI-PORTAL BRIDGE FOR PROVIDING NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

Split IEEE 1394 bridges utilize individual portals or bundles of portals to communicate over a non-full-featured IEEE 1394 network such as a local or wide area network in combination with IEEE 1394 multi-portal bridges. Multi-portal bridges may be formed through the connection of several split bridges each with one or more IEEE 1394 portals over a core net. The core net is invisible to the IEEE 1394 nodes with respect to traffic originating from an IEEE 1394 bus for a destination in an IEEE 1394 bus, and the network elements allow for increased network scalability in both terms of physical size and levels of hierarchy. Useful properties of a core net such as availability of high-performance switches or increased reach are incorporated into an IEEE 1394 network.