Patent ID: 8005972

Claim:
A method comprising: identifying inconsistent data in an external data communications network, the inconsistent data associated with data being forwarded from a sending node to a receiving node, the data being transmitted from the sending node using a first communications protocol that assumes transmitted data is consistent, meaning that data is not duplicated or arriving out of order, the identifying comprising: obtaining, by a network interface of the data communications network, transmitted data forwarded across a network switch fabric of the data communications network employing a second communications protocol, the second communications protocol employing a sequence number attached to the forwarded data, as part of forwarding the data from the sending node to the receiving node, wherein transmitting the data across the network switch fabric of the data communications network results in inconsistent data, the inconsistent data comprising inconsistently sequenced data resulting from transmission of the data over the network switch fabric of the data communications network employing the second communications protocol, the inconsistently sequenced data meaning that data is duplicated or arriving out of order, and the second communications protocol being different from the first communications protocol, wherein the second communications protocol does not assume that data is consistent; detecting by the network interface the inconsistent data, wherein the detecting of the inconsistent data and a recovery of the data responsive to detecting of the inconsistent data are independent in that the recovery is not performed by the network interface that detects the inconsistent data but by the receiving node of the data communications network separate and apart from the network interface detecting the inconsistent data, the receiving node and the network interface being coupled via an interconnect link, the interconnect link being separate from and independent of the network switch fabric of the data communications network; and wherein the network interface resides at an edge of the network switch fabric, and wherein recovery is performed by the receiving node of the data communications network external to the network interface and coupled to the network interface via the interconnect link, the interconnect link being designed based on the first communications protocol that assumes forwarded data is consistent, the receiving node and the interconnect link residing external to and separate from the network switch fabric.