Patent ID: 8467383

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a primary reliable transport protocol module configured: (a) to be the active reliable transport protocol module in a normal transport module operating state, and (b) not to be the active reliable transport protocol module in a failover transport module operating state; a standby reliable transport protocol module configured: (a) not to be the active reliable transport protocol module in the normal transport module operating state, and (b) to be the active reliable transport protocol module in the failover transport module operating state; and a communications subsystem, communicatively coupled to the primary reliable transport protocol module and the standby reliable transport protocol module, configured to communicate packets with one or more external devices, including delivering individual copies of reliable transport protocol module packets received over a connection with a peer transport application in one of said external devices to both the primary and standby reliable transport protocol modules while in the normal transport module operating state, wherein said individual copies of said received reliable transport protocol module packets being delivered to the primary reliable transport protocol module do not flow through the standby reliable transport module, and wherein said individual copies of received reliable transport protocol module packets being delivered to the standby reliable transport protocol module do not flow through the primary reliable transport module; wherein the connection with the peer transport application does not need to be restarted when a switch is made from the normal transport module operating state to the failover transport module operating state and the standby reliable transport protocol module takes over as the active reliable transport protocol module from the primary reliable transport module; wherein the standby reliable transport protocol module is configured to, in response to receiving one of said individual copies of a particular packet of said received reliable transport protocol module packets, (a) communicate an indication of said receipt by the standby reliable transport protocol module to the primary reliable transport protocol module, and (b) provide information from said copy of the particular packet to a standby application; and wherein the primary reliable transport protocol module is configured to, in response to receiving the indication of said receipt by the standby reliable transport protocol module and having received one of said individual copies of the particular packet: (a) sending an acknowledgement message corresponding to the particular packet to the peer transport application via the standby reliable transport protocol module, and (b) providing information from said copy of the particular packet to a primary application.