The invention relates to a device for circuit switching connections, which are led outside a switching center, with a plurality of peripheral devices that can be addressed under a common HW address by the message distribution system of the switching center. According to the invention, each of the peripheral devices comprises its own logical address, and a splitting up of the peripheral devices into real peripheral devices, which represent the previously mentioned HW address, and into virtual peripheral devices is given. The invention is characterized in that the logical addresses of the peripheral devices, which are used exclusively for controlling connections led outside of the switching center, are located in areas of the switching network that are not expanded into hardware, whereby a virtual switching network unit is defined, and a splitting up of the switching network into real and virtual switching network units is carried out.