Supporting multiple point-to-point sessions between network devices on an ATM backbone

Data related to multiple point-to-point sessions is transmitted on a single virtual circuit of a ATM based network. In an embodiment implemented in accordance with ATM Adaptation Layer 2 (AAL2), the data related to each session is transported on a channel of the AAL2 virtual circuit. As the intermediate devices in the virtual circuit path merely need to maintain tables for one virtual circuit, the overhead on the devices may be minimized. By assigning data of a session to a channel provided by an adaptation layer, addition fields or higher level protocols may not be needed to transport the data related to the sessions.