Patent ID: 7006444

Claim:
A method for configuring a tagged virtual connection in a communication network, said virtual connection interconnecting a first boundary device with a second boundary device via N intermediate devices, where N is a positive integer, the method comprising: (a) on a first boundary device, generating and forwarding to a first intermediate device a first tag allocation request; (b) if N is greater than one, on an (N−M)th intermediate device, in response to an (N−M)th tag allocation request, generating and forwarding to an (N−M+1)th intermediate device an (N−M+1)th tag allocation request, where M is initially equal to N−1; (c) if N is greater than one, repeating step (b) for each integral value of M between N−1 and zero, excluding N−1 and zero; and (d) on an Nth intermediate device, in response to an Nth tag allocation request, generating and forwarding to a second boundary device an (N+1)th tag allocation request, wherein tag values are allocated and transmitted between said devices in relation to said tag allocation requests, wherein said tag values are applied to establish a tagged virtual connection for transmitting end-user messages, and wherein at least one of said tag allocation requests is included in a tag allocation message having a plurality of tag allocation requests.