Patent ID: 7349398
Filing Date: 2008-03-25
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving packets in a global order, the packets being designated for different ones of a plurality of reorder contexts; for each of the plurality of reorder contexts, assigning reorder context sequence numbers indicating an order relative to the global order of the packets designated for that reorder context; storing packet descriptors representing each of the received packets in a shared reorder buffer; completing processing of at least certain of the packets out of order using out-of-order processing, the out-of-order processing including both processing packets out of the global order and processing packets out of reorder context order; for each of the plurality of reorder contexts, maintaining a first indication of the one of the sequence numbers assigned to one of the packets that is next to be retired for that reorder context; and retiring the packet descriptors for each of the packets from the shared reorder buffer, based on the sequence numbers, in order with respect to each of the plurality of reorder contexts, but out of the global order for at least certain of the packets.