Patent ID: 7394769

Claim:
A method in an IP network for detection and avoidance of data links causing data corruption, said method comprising the steps of: receiving a data packet over a data link at a router within an IP network, wherein the data packet is sourced by a sender and destined for a receiver and contains an indication to perform a checksum on the entire data packet; the router performing a checksum on the entire data packet prior to transmission of the data packet toward the receiver, in response to receiving the indication; modifying a value in the router indicating a number of data packets previously received over the data link for which a checksum failed, in response to a failure of the checksum of the entire data packet; performing a routing update to avoid transmission of data packets over the data link, if the value exceeds a corruption threshold for the router; determining a retransmission rate of data packets from the sender to the receiver; and sending a data packet from the sender to the receiver, wherein the data packet does not contain an indication for a router receiving the data packet en route to the receiver to check the entire data packet for data corruption, if the retransmission rate is less than a predetermined threshold.