The next part of the interface name is F, a chassis slot number represented by a Flexible PIC Concentrator (FPC) slot number on an M-series router or a PIM slot number on a J-series router. The M-series routers have two possible FPC alignments: horizontal slots or vertical slots. The larger M-series routers (M40e, M320) have vertically mounted FPCs with slot numbers starting at slot 0 and counting from left to right

A J-series router does not contain any FPCs but does have PIM slots that are represented by the variable F. All fixed-port slots are always assigned slot 0, and PIM slots are assigned 1–6 numbering from top to bottom and left to right.

PIC slot number

The next part of the interface name is the PIC slot number, represented by the variable P. In M-series routers, four PICs can fit into a single FPC slot. The slot numbers begin at 0 and continue to the final slot, 3. In M-series routers, the direction of PIC slot numbering depends on whether the chassis slots are vertically or horizontally aligned. In a vertically aligned M-series router, the PIC slot number is counted from top to bottom

 PIC slot numbering in horizontally aligned systems such as the M7i and M10i is a little less standard. In these systems, the PIC slot numbering goes from right to left, starting at 0 and ending at slot 3. The M7i's second FPC slot contains only two possible PIC slot numbers.

Port number

The last part of the interface name is represented by the variable T, or the actual physical port number. M-series routers have port numbers with a variety of schemes depending on the PIC and the router model (horizontal versus vertical slots). For vertical FPC routers (m40e, M320), port numbers start from the top right and continue from the bottom to the top and then move right to left. For horizontal FPC routers (m20, m7i, m10i), port numbers start from the bottom right and then move right to left and from the bottom to the top, which show this sequence in the different chassis types.