A connection apparatus for connecting a first communication system with a second communication system and a third communication system. A first frame is received from the first communication system, where the first frame has a multicast address as a destination address, and where the destination address requires the first frame to be transmitted onto the second communication system. The multicast address is translated into a functional address, and the functional address is written into a second frame transmitted onto the second communication system. The second frame is received and is transmitted onto a third communication system, and the functional address is translated into a multicast address for the third communication system, and the multicast address is written into a destination field of the frame as it is transmitted onto the third communication system. The second communication system may be a token ring system based upon an IEEE 802.5 standard, and the functional address may be written into a DSAP field and into a PROTOCOL TYPE field of an 802.5 Standard frame.