Please note that even though it looks very similar, it's not a duplicate question with this link: How to list active / open connections in Oracle?
I'm not asking about the number of sessions, but connections. I'm aware that I can query the v$session view, but I don't know how many connections are being used there. If there is a way to derive from it, please enlighten me.
EDIT: I'm asking about the physical database connection to the database.