Patent ID: 7814309

Claim:
A method comprising; executing an application on a network device, the application having a plurality of modules each associated with one or more layers of a hierarchy of communication protocols; storing, in a memory space associated with the application, a connection data structure, the connection data structure storing together data for the plurality of modules of the application for a connection maintained by the network device; forming a unique connection identifier for the connection; independently checkpointing portions of the connection data structure for different modules into a memory space associated with a checkpoint server, the portions of the connection data structure each being embedded with the unique connection identifier and stored separately in the memory space associated with the checkpoint server; and in response to a restart or failure of the application executing on the network device, restoring the connection data structure in the memory space associated with the application, by retrieving the separately stored portions of the connection data structure for at least some of the different modules from the memory space associated with a checkpoint server and combining them to reform the connection data structure in the memory space associated with the application.