Methods and structures for managing connection requests within a SAS controller operating as an initiator device. A SAS initiator device maintains a table of information regarding known SAS devices in the SAS domain. An index value is used by each of a plurality of link layer processing elements in the SAS controller to access information in the table. The index value is fewer bits than the complete eight byte SAS address and the logic to manipulate and compare the index value is therefore simpler than that required to directly manipulate a full SAS address. Further, the information table is shared by each of the link layer processing elements to further reduce complexity from replication of circuits and logic in the SAS controller.