Patent ID: 7684440

Claim:
A method in a sending end station capable of supporting a larger-than-Ethernet-standard frame size for formatting data for transportation over an extended Local Area Network (LAN) in which it is unknown at some initial time the frame sizes supported by other network elements, said method comprising: identifying a target network element capable of using data formatted as a non-standard frame, by sending an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request frame as a reachability discovery probe (RDP) over said LAN to determine if said target network element is reachable; determining the larger-than-Ethernet-standard frame size useable by said target network element by sending a sequence of at least one Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request frame including a variable amount of padding as a peer maximum transmission unit probe (PMP) over said LAN to said target network element, each PMP having a frame size wherein a reply received from the target network element in response to a particular PMP indicates that the target network element is capable of receiving data formatted at the frame size associated with the PMP that triggered the reply; the sequence of at least one PMP having a sequence of corresponding frame sizes adjusted to another size corresponding to an index value x to discover a largest maximum transmission unit between the sending end station and the target network element.