Patent ID: 7415025

Claim:
A method comprising: clearing a plurality of first connections in bulk between a first node and a second node of an ATM network from the first node; for each said clearing, sending a first message from the first node to the second node, the first message comprising a single bulk release message from the first node to the second node containing an identification of the first connections, the identification comprising a list of connection identifiers allowing both of consecutive connection identifiers and non-consecutive connection identifiers; receiving the first message at the second node; clearing the first connections from the second node in response to the received first message; sending a single second message from the second node to the first node in response to the clearing of the first connections from the second node and receiving the first message identifying at least one of the connections cleared in response to the received first message, and the first message; the first node maintaining a database of at least one of a connections cleared and identified in the first message; and both a connections cleared and identified in the first message, and a connections cleared and identified in the first message but not identified in the second message; and the first node receiving the second message sent from the second node to the first node.