Patent ID: 8065279

Claim:
A computer program product for providing a performance neutral heartbeat in a computer communication system having a communications link, the computer program product comprising: a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising: maintaining a send flag; maintaining a receive flag; determining that a heartbeat timer has activated; posting a plurality of system heartbeats; for each system heartbeat of the plurality of system heartbeats; checking a state of the send flag to determine if packets have been sent since a prior heartbeat timer activation; checking a state of the receive flag to determine if packets have been received since a prior heartbeat timer activation, wherein each subsequent system heartbeat of the plurality of system heartbeats includes an identification of an increasing length of time since receipt of a last packet; and in response to a passage of a predetermined number of system heartbeats, declaring the communications link not viable and recovering the communications link.