Patent ID: 9380005
Filing Date: 2016-06-28
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a first line card within a packet switching device sent from a particular packet switching device, a first packet stream; receiving, by a second line card, different from the first line card, within the packet switching device sent from the particular packet switching device, a second packet stream; wherein each of the first packet stream and the second packet stream includes a same replicated packet stream; processing, by a third entity within the packet switching device and not located on the first line card and not located on the second line card, packets of the same replicated packet stream received from the first line card and the second line card; sending, by the first line card, update messages to inform the second line card of which packets of the same replicated stream of packet in the first packet stream have been successfully received by the first line card; and while the first packet stream is in an active state and the second packet stream is in an non-active state and in response to identifying a difference between a number of packets of the same replicated packet stream received in the second packet stream and in the first packet stream equaling or exceeding to a predetermined threshold value: switching the second packet stream to be in the active state and switching the first packet stream to be in the non-active state including sending at least one packet of the same replicated packet stream buffered by the second line card while the second packet stream was in the non-active state that was not identified as being successfully received in the first packet stream by the first line card based on said update messages; wherein when the first packet stream is in the active state: the first line card forwards packets of the same replicated packet stream in the first packet stream to the third entity; wherein when the second packet stream is in the active state: the second line card forwards packets of the same replicated packet stream in the second packet stream to the third entity; and wherein when the second packet stream is in the non-active state: the second line card buffers and then drops without forwarding to the third entity packets of the same replicated packet stream in the second packet stream.