IEEE 1394 gateway for fault-tolerant communication

A system comprising:

• a plurality of nodes that communicate with one another over a plurality of IEEE 1394 buses;
• wherein each of the plurality of nodes comprises a plurality of IEEE 1394 subnet interfaces for connecting to the plurality of IEEE 1394 buses, wherein each of the plurality of IEEE 1394 subnet interfaces comprises a respective IEEE 1394 physical layer for establishing a physical layer connection with a respective one of the plurality of IEEE 1394 buses and a respective IEEE 1394 link layer for communicating over the respective one of the plurality of IEEE 1394 buses, wherein at least the IEEE 1394 physical layers for the plurality of subnet interfaces do not share hardware;
• wherein each of the plurality of nodes implement common network layer functionality that interacts with all of the plurality of IEEE 1394 subnet interfaces of the respective node and routes IEEE 1394 data packets among the plurality of IEEE 1394 buses.

A method comprising:

• receiving IEEE 1394 data packets from a plurality of IEEE 1394 buses using separate IEEE 1394 subnet interfaces, wherein respective IEEE 1394 data packets are received from each of the plurality IEEE 1394 buses using a respective IEEE 1394 subnet interface, wherein each IEEE 1394 subnet interface comprises a respective IEEE 1394 physical layer for establishing a physical layer connection with a respective one of the plurality of IEEE 1394 buses and a respective IEEE 1394 link layer, wherein at least the IEEE 1394 physical layers for the plurality of IEEE 1394 subnet interfaces do not share hardware;
• and
• forwarding the IEEE 1394 data packets among the plurality of IEEE 1394 buses using a common network layer.

Apparatus comprising a non-transitory storage medium tangibly embodying program instructions, the program instructions comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:

• receive IEEE 1394 data packets from a plurality of IEEE 1394 buses using separate IEEE 1394 subnet interfaces, wherein respective IEEE 1394 data packets are received from each of the plurality IEEE 1394 buses using a respective IEEE 1394 subnet interface, wherein each IEEE 1394 subnet interface comprises a respective IEEE 1394 physical layer for establishing a physical layer connection with a respective one of the plurality of IEEE 1394 buses and a respective IEEE 1394 link layer, wherein at least the IEEE 1394 physical layers for the plurality of IEEE 1394 subnet interfaces do not share hardware;
• and
• forward the IEEE 1394 data packets among the plurality of IEEE 1394 buses using a common network layer.