Patent ID: 8644319

Claim:
A method of data transmission in a data communication network, comprising: generating first and second network data packets formatted for transmission from a source terminal to a destination terminal in the data communication network, the network data packets each having a header and a payload, the header including a sequence number field and a first-packet offset field, said generating comprising: dividing a received input data packet having a header and payload, when a network data packet does not contain sufficient available payload length to transmit the received input data packet, into a first portion of a length less than or equal to the available payload length of the network data packet and a second portion containing the remainder of the input data packet; and packing the first portion into the payload of the first network data packet and the second portion in the payload of the second network data packet; recording a sequence number in the sequence number field, the sequence number identifying the relative position of the corresponding network data packet in a series of network data packets; recording a first-packet offset value in the first-packet offset field, the first-packet offset value identifying the location in the network data packet payload of a portion of the received input data packet that is packed in the network data packet payload when another portion of the received input packet has not been partially packed in a network data packet payload of a previous network data packet; and transmitting the network data packet from the source terminal to the destination terminal.