Patent ID: 8811344

Claim:
A method for providing sequence numbers, comprising: generating a global index pool containing a plurality of indexes, wherein generating a global index pool further includes configuring each index to a 19-bit wide index in the global index pool and providing the global index pool containing equal to or greater than 500,000 indexes; generating a plurality of non-standard ports for a network device, wherein generating a plurality of non-standard ports includes providing eight (8) non-standard ports for a gateway GPRS support node (“GGSN”); providing a first sequence number (“SN”) for a general packet radio service tunneling protocol (“GTP”) message which is used for communication between peers, wherein providing a first SN further includes providing a 16-bit SN for the GTP message which can be sent from the GGSN to a serving GPRS support node (“SGSN”); storing the first SN in a first field of a first index of the plurality of indexes, wherein storing the first SN includes inserting a 16-bit SN in upper portion of a 19-bit index and a 3-bit first socket address in lower portion of the 19-bit index; and inserting a first socket address of the plurality of non-standard ports in a second field of the first index of the plurality of indexes.