Patent ID: 8665905

Claim:
A communication system, comprising: a plurality of access modules, each of the access modules coupled to at least one respective subscriber line and inserted into a respective slot of a chassis, the access modules configured to transmit virtual circuit requests identifying particular virtual circuits of a packet network; memory for storing sets of virtual circuit (VC) attribute data for use in provisioning the access modules to service packets carried by the virtual circuits, the memory external to each of the access modules; a request handler configured to receive the virtual circuit requests from the access modules and to distribute shadows of the sets of VC attribute data to the access modules based on the virtual circuit requests, wherein one of the access modules is configured to transmit to the request handler one of the virtual circuit requests, wherein the request handler is configured to transmit one of the shadows to the one access module in response to the one virtual circuit request, wherein the one shadow has VC attribute data indicative of one of the virtual circuits identified by the one virtual circuit request, wherein the one access module has logic configured to provision the one access module to service packets carried by the one virtual circuit based on the one shadow, and wherein the one access module is configured to receive a first data packet in accordance with a first protocol and to encapsulate data from the first data packet into a second data packet in accordance with a second protocol based on the one shadow.