Activation of the link station makes the link station active to VTAM® and makes VTAM SSCP an owner of that link station. For cross-subarea SDLC, LAN, and X.25 link stations, more than one SSCP can share ownership of an NCP link station if the link station is activated by each SSCP. However, for cross-subarea SDLC, LAN, and X.25 link stations within a host processor node, only one SSCP can own and activate the link station.

An NCP link station can also be active without SSCP ownership if its link has been defined to use the SDLC monitor mode function in the NCP. As a result, a cross-subarea SDLC link station within an NCP can be capable of supporting session traffic without having been activated by VTAM.