Patent ID: 7782862

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a plurality of lower-level packets having respective sequence numbers; reconstituting the lower-level packets as upper-level packets, wherein one or more lower-level packets are constituents of each said upper-level packet; and forwarding at least some of the upper-level packets for further processing, CHARACTERIZED BY: from some of the sequence numbers, determining that the constituents of at least one upper-level packet have arrived ahead of sequence by an amount DeltaSN corresponding to more than one sequential position; and delaying the forwarding of said at least one upper-level packet if DeltaSN exceeds a specified limit corresponding to more than one sequential position wherein: the amount DeltaSN is determined from a degree to which sequence numbers of lower-level packets are out of order; and the specified limit is a limit on the amount by which the sequence number of an early-arriving lower-level packet exceeds the sequence number of the next-arriving lower-level packet.