Patent ID: 7881329

Claim:
A method for maintaining a high reliability logical connection between an initiator and a recipient, comprising: transmitting at a ping interval, by the initiator, ping messages to the recipient; receiving, by the initiator, acknowledgement messages from the recipient responsive to the ping messages during an acknowledgement interval; dynamically determining, by the initiator, a share of ping messages that have been acknowledged; dynamically adjusting, by the initiator, the ping interval based on the share; dropping, by the initiator, a first logical connection to the recipient in response to expiration of the acknowledgement interval without receipt of an acknowledgement message from the recipient; wherein the step of dropping further comprises: transmitting, by the initiator, a message to the recipient carrying a session number of a second logical connection to the recipient generated by the initiator based on a session number of the first logical connection using a common scheme operative on the initiator and the recipient; comparing for a match, by the recipient, the session number carried in the message with a further session number independently generated by the recipient based on the session number of the first logical connection and the common scheme; and dropping in response to the match, by the recipient, the first logical connection in favor of the second logical connection.