Patent ID: 7411960

Claim:
An apparatus for retrieving Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) configuration information from a network device in a communications network, wherein the PVC configuration information specifies one or more PVCs defined for the network device, the apparatus comprising: a request generator configured to generate and provide to the network device a request for PVC configuration information stored in the network device; a physical interface logically configured into a logical main interface and a plurality of logical sub-interfaces, the physical interface being configured to receive a message containing both the PVC configuration information stored in the network device and a Virtual Path Identifier (VPI), wherein the VPI and a VCI uniquely identify a PVC associated with the PVC configuration information; a comparator configured to compare the VPI from the message to a first logical sub-interface number of a first logical sub-interface from the plurality of logical sub-interfaces; and if the VPI from the message matches the first logical sub-interface number of the first logical sub-interface, then cause the PVC configuration information from the message to be selectively stored into a first portion of a PVC configuration information storage that is designated for the first logical sub-interface; and if the VPI from the message does not match the first logical sub-interface number of the first logical sub-interface, then cause the PVC configuration information from the message to be selectively stored into a second portion of the PVC configuration information storage that is designated for the logical main interface.