Patent ID: 8886821

Claim:
A method for communication of a host having a first network interface device and a second network interface device coupled thereto, the method comprising: by the first network interface device, operating a data transfer phase of a TCP/IP connection between the host and a peer, including maintaining sequence number information usable to operate the data transfer phase of the TCP/IP connection between the host and the peer; by the host, while the first network device is operating the data transfer phase of the TCP/IP connection with the peer, including maintaining the sequence number information usable to operate the data transfer phase of the TCP/IP connection between the host and the peer, determining the sequence number information that describes the TCP/IP connection being operated by the first network interface device independently of the first network interface device maintaining the sequence number information; and causing the second network interface device to operate the TCP/IP connection with the peer based at least in part on the sequence number information maintained by the host, wherein the causing step does not include providing the sequence number information maintained by the first network interface device from the first network interface device.