Patent ID: 8363550

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: filling, by a sending computing device, a memory buffer with data units to transmit to a receiving computing device; storing, for each particular data unit of at least a subset of the data units in the memory buffer, a first value that identifies a maximum number of times that the sending computing device is to transmit the particular data unit, wherein the first value is different among at least two of the particular data units in the memory buffer; storing, for each particular data unit of the at least subset of the data units, a second value that identifies a number of times that the particular data unit has been transmitted from the sending computing device to the receiving computing device; selecting, from the data units in the memory buffer and for inclusion in a packet, available data units for which a comparison of the second value for the available data unit to the first value for the available data unit indicates that the available data unit has not been transmitted the maximum number of times identified for the available data unit; and transmitting the packet of the selected data units to the receiving computing device.