Patent ID: 7564843

Claim:
A method for communication over a data processing system network comprising: determining whether a destination of a particular data packet to be transmitted is on the same subnet as a source of the data packet, wherein said data packet is an IP packet generated by an IP layer; in response to a determination that said destination is on the same subnet as said source, generating the data packet, including setting an option in a header of the data packet indicating a reassembly timer option and inserting a customized reassembly time into a field of the data packet wherein said first customized reassembly time is set to a first time corresponding to a speed of the subnet; in response to a determination that said destination is not on the same subnet as said source: determining whether said IP layer has calculated a round trip time; in response to a determination that said IP layer has calculated a round trip time, generating the data packet, including setting an option in a header of the data packet indicating a reassembly timer option and inserting a customized reassembly time into a field of the data packet, wherein said customized reassembly time is set to a second time corresponding to said round trip time; in response to a determination that said IP layer has not calculated a round trip time, generating the data packet, including setting an option in a header of the data packet indicating a time stamp reassembly timer option and inserting a customized reassembly time into a field of the data packet, wherein said second customized reassembly time is a time stamp indicating a time when said header is generated, wherein the receiver of the data packet will utilize the customized reassembly time to compute a traversal time of the data fragment based on the arrival time of the data fragment and further wherein the receiver sets a reassembly time for the data fragment based on the traversal time; and transmitting the data packet, wherein a receiver of the data packet will utilize the customized reassembly time to discard a fragment of the packet that remains fragmented longer than indicated by the customized reassembly time following receipt of the fragment.