Abstract: A multi-node network manifests a changing topology of individual data processing nodes. An originating node transmits an initial identifier (ID) message over each interconnect link that emanates from itself. A receiver in the originating node receives an acknowledgement (ACK) message from each neighbor node, each ACK message including a neighbor node's link identifier for the link over which the ACK message was transmitted. The originating node constructs and stores a topology table entry which includes data from received ACK messages. Each entry includes a node identifier, an originating node link identifier and a neighbor node identifier from which an ACK message was received and a neighbor node link identifier for the link.