Patent ID: 8767740

Claim:
A method implemented by a computer of managing a packet administration map for data packets to be received via a network, for packet groups organized in sequences of consecutive packets, the packet administration map comprising at least one map entry comprising a search key entry and a value entry, the at least one map entry indicating a range of contiguous data packets that did not arrive at a receiver, the search key entry indicating an upper sequence number and the value entry indicating a lower sequence number of the range of contiguous data packets, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, by a central processing unit (CPU) of the computer, a current sequence number of a current data packet, evaluating, whether the current sequence number indicates a new packet loss, creating, once it has been found with the evaluating step that a new packet loss has occurred, a new map entry with an upper sequence number of the range of contiguous data packets which have been found to be lost, as the search key entry and the lower sequence number of the range of contiguous data packets which have been found to be lost as the value entry, finding, when the current sequence number does not indicate a new packet loss dependent on the current sequence number, by searching the packet administration map for a target search key entry that is greater than the current sequence number and closest to the current sequence number, the at least one map entry closest to the current sequence number with the sequence number in the search key being greater than the current sequence number, determining, whether the current sequence number falls into the range of contiguous data packets indicated by the found map entry, and updating, dependent on the result of the step of determining, the found map entry of the packet administration map.