The present invention discloses a photonic home area network for interfacing an external communications data network with a plurality of buildings, residential or commercial, in a neighborhood. The network includes an apparatus for a service node used in a multimedia network comprises a data distributor circuit; a data port adapted to couple with a data stream, said data distributor circuit having a relational code adapted to determine whether an address field of a data packet from said data stream is intended for local distribution by said distributor circuit, wherein said data port is operably coupled to said data distributor circuit; and a decoder in communication with said distributor circuit, said decoder having a virtual channel filter for filtering said address field to route said data packet to at least one data port.