METHOD OF MAINTAINING PVC STATUS PACKETIZED COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

A method of managing an interface to an internal message pipe, such as an FDDI bus, comprises sending a status enquiry message to request the status of each PVC having a DLCI in a specified range, receiving a subset status message containing sequence exchange numbers corresponding to the last status message sent out, updating the contents of a station's PVC's in response to the received subset status message, and propagating PVC status changes between entities on the pipe.