Patent ID: 7450512

Claim:
A method of communicating a data packet comprised of a plurality of data cells, the method using a transmit queue and a retransmit queue, each of the transmit queue and the retransmit queue having a head and a tail, the method comprising: transmitting a first data cell from the head of the transmit queue; inserting the first data cell at the tail of the retransmit queue—in response to a hop-by-hop ACK signal—if the first data cell is for retransmission; removing a second data cell at the head of the retransmit queue if receipt has been acknowledged for the second data cell; and retransmitting the second data cell at the head of the retransmit queue if time to retransmit elapses, wherein the second data cell is provided to the tail of the retransmit queue if retransmitted.