Patent ID: 8639822

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving an application-layer message from transport protocol logic that is configured to deliver in-order application-layer messages to an application; wherein the received application-layer message is a next in-order application-layer message for an application-layer session that is bound by a hold timer; detecting an expiration of the hold timer for the application-layer session; in response to detecting the expiration of the hold timer for the application-layer session, inspecting an out-of-order queue of the transport protocol logic and determining whether or not to extend the hold timer based at least in part on whether the out-of-order queue includes any out-of-order application-layer messages for the application-layer session; wherein, unless the hold timer is extended, expiration of the hold timer causes deletion of information that was accumulated during the application-layer session; wherein extending the hold timer prevents the deletion of information that was accumulated during the application-layer session; extending the hold timer based at least in part on determining that the out-of-order queue includes an out-of-order application-layer message; and wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.