Patent ID: 7577145

Claim:
A packet communications method, comprising the steps of: transmitting a packet containing expiration time information for the packet or for a body of the packet either in the body or in a header of the packet, wherein the expiration time information is specified according to a period of time from inputting of the packet from an upper layer of the transmitting station to outputting of the packet to an upper layer of the receiving station; and receiving the packet as a received packet in the receiving station, wherein if a transmission sequence is not being followed, the received packet is held up to a point in time immediately before an expiration time for the received packet; and if, at the point in time, there is a packet yet to be received which precedes the received packet in the transmission sequence, a receipt of the vet-to-be-received packet is given up, and a soon-to-expire packet is output to the upper layer of the receiving station.