Patent ID: 8761181

Claim:
A device for tracking message packets at a node of a network, the device comprising: one or more processors; a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a plurality of instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to: receive, at the device a message packet, the message packet having a packet ID value and a source address value; locate a record in a memory location of the device, the record having a start ID field, address field, and a sequence field, wherein the value of the address field corresponds to the source address value of the message packet and the start ID field corresponds to the packet ID value of the message packet; and track the receipt of the message packet with the record using the sequence field of the record, wherein a plurality of bits in the sequence field tracks the packet ID value by mapping the packet ID value to one bit or more bits of a sequence field of the record and each bit of the sequence field of a record is used to track a different packet ID value.