Patent ID: 7653059

Claim:
A method comprising: a sender node sending a first message to a receiver node, wherein the first message is routed from the sender node to the receiver node via a path including a plurality of nodes; at each node in the path through which the first message is routed, the node storing state information specifying a link via which the first message was received; the receiver node sending a plurality of reply messages in response to the first message, wherein each reply message is separately routed from the receiver node to the sender node via the path by which the first message reached the receiver node, wherein for each node in the path, the state information stored on the node is used to determine the link by which to send the reply messages; and wherein the receiver node sends the plurality of reply messages to the sender node sequentially, wherein a last reply message sent to the sender node is marked as the last reply; and where each node in the path deleting the state information stored on the node in response to receiving the last reply message and determining that the last reply message is marked as the last reply.