each device attached to a gl 5 link might have up to thirty groups defined the channel group information maintained in ram 490 provides a global indication of valid channels for making specific connections if the specific channels are available for use device status information is also maintained in ram 490 and typically reflects each device being idle at the time of registration other information is maintained in ram 490 such as svc definitions bid information 34 bidding 34 to be explained hereinafter and timers the use of which are also explained hereinafter certain configuration information is also maintained at the pim controller level so that rapid communication with the switch control processor can befacilitated for example information about defining channel groups is typically stored at both the pim controller level at for example memory498 and memory 499 shown in fig4 as part of pim 403 and pim 451 respectively and in ram 490 so that channel group assignments can be processed based on channel group number after registration svc connections need to be defined and activated as required it should be recalled that an svc is connection oriented i e before data transmission starts the transmitting processor must define a connection with the receiving processor in order to define the connectionthe transmitting or source processor e g processor 450 in fig4 provides the network address of the receiving or destination processor e g processor 420 of fig4 to the switch control processor via a management message the process of defining the destination computer to the switching network controller is referred to herein as connection definition a computer may have several connection defined throughout the network at any given time each connection has.