A logical communications medium identified by a VCI and carried within a VPC. VCCs may be permanent virtual channel connections (PVCCs), switched virtual channel connections (SVCCs), or smart permanent virtual channel connections (SPVCC). Further, VCC is an end-to-end logical communications medium. Another acronym, VCL (virtual channel link), is more precise, referring to the single segment object identified by a VCI and carried within a VPC. Similarly, a VPC is an end-to-end object and a Virtual Path Link (VPL) is identified a VPI within a link.