Patent ID: 8437267

Claim:
A method for transmitting packets between sender and receiver overlay nodes of an overlay network that runs over an underlying IP network, comprising: a) executing a packet recovery process at a receiver overlay node upon satisfaction of a packet recovery condition that is associated with meeting a deadline driven criteria for a transmitted packet from an adjacent sender overlay node to the receiver overlay node, said packet recovery process comprising: a1) associating N number of scheduled times with N requests for retransmission of the transmitted packet to the adjacent sender overlay node, said N scheduled times being relative to the satisfaction of the packet recovery condition, wherein at least one of the N scheduled times includes a receiver waiting time; and a2) at each scheduled time, transmitting a request for retransmission of the transmitted packet; and b) executing a packet retransmission process at the adjacent sender overlay node only upon the first receipt of a request for retransmission of the transmitted packet; said packet retransmission process comprising: b1) associating M number of scheduled times with M retransmissions of the transmitted packet to the receiver overlay node, said M scheduled times being relative to the receipt of the request for retransmission of the transmitted packet, wherein at least one of the M scheduled times includes a sender waiting time; and b2) at each scheduled time, retransmitting the transmitted packet; wherein the N and M are non-zero positive integers and wherein at least one of N number of scheduled times or M number of scheduled times is greater than one.