Patent ID: 7826449

Claim:
A method for generating an Internet Protocol (IP) packet for handling communications over a data processing system network, said method comprising: determining by a sender whether or not an IP destination of an IP packet to be transmitted is on the same subset as an IP source address of said IP packet; in a determination that an IP destination of said IP packet is not on the same subset as an IP source address of said IP packet, determining by said sender whether or not a round-trip time for the transmission of said IP packet has been evaluated; in a determination that a round-trip time for the transmission of said IP packet has been evaluated, generating said IP packet with a reassembly timer option set to said round-trip time; and in a determination that a round-trip time for the transmission of said IP packet has not been evaluated, generating said IP data packet with a time stamp reassembly time option, 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.