Nokia routers can fill the needs of smaller service providers as well as the more remote point of presence (PoPs) locations for larger service providers. To support the use of lower speed links as network links in the likelihood that lower speed circuits are used as network or backbone links, the routers support a DS-1/E-1/DS-3/E-3 port (ASAP MDAs) or channel and an MLPPP bundle (ASAP MDAs) as network ports to transport and forwarding of all service types. This feature allows service providers to use lower speed circuits to interconnect small PoPs and CoS that do not require large amounts of network or backbone bandwidth.