Photonic home area network

A multimedia network card comprising:

• a deserializer coupled to a serial data stream, said deserializer adapted to convert said serial data stream to a parallel data stream representing a plurality of data of said serial data stream;
• a receiver coupled to said deserializer, said receiver having a relational code adapted to determine whether an address field of said parallel data stream designates local distribution;
• a decoder in communication with said receiver, said decoder having a virtual channel filter adapted to filter said address field to route said data packet to at least one data port;
• and
• a serializer coupled to said receiver, said serializer adapted to convert an output data stream from said receiver into an output serial data stream.

A method of interfacing an multimedia communications data stream having a plurality of data packets, the method comprising:

• (a) receiving a data packet of the plurality of data packets;
• (b) determining whether an address field of the data packet is intended for local distribution;
• (c) routing the data packet to a data port if the data packet is intended for local distribution;
• and
• (d) returning the data packet to the data stream if the data packet is not intended for local distribution.