Patent ID: 7346699

Claim:
A data processing system comprising: a source device participating in a multicast group and including: a first source application instance (AI) producing a first unit of work stream; and communication services (CS); multiple destination devices participating in the multicast group, each destination device in the multicast group including: at least one destination AI which consumes units of work; and CS; communication services/fabric providing communication between the source device and the multiple destination devices; multiple source and destination resources (SDRs), each SDR implementing an independent reliable transport service between the source device and a corresponding one of the multiple destination devices in the multicast group for delivery of the first unit of work stream at the corresponding one of the multiple destination devices and guaranteeing strong ordering of the first unit of work stream received at the corresponding one of the multiple destination devices, wherein each SDR includes: first SDR resources at the source device having at least one queue configured to hold transmitted from the source device to the corresponding one of the multiple destination devices but not acknowledged units of work and not yet transmitted units of work; and second SDR resources at the corresponding one of the multiple destination devices having state information including an expected next sequence number value indicating an expected defined order corresponding to a next unit of work to be received; and wherein the CS in the source device correlates the independent reliable transport services and verifies that a predetermined percentage of destination AIs in the multicast group reliably receives each unit of work or a cumulative set of units of work in the first unit of work stream in the expected defined order.