Patent ID: 8910006

Claim:
A method of providing a regulated delay between a first network interface, which is arranged between a data link layer and a physical layer of a transmitter, and a corresponding second network interface, which is arranged between a data link layer and a physical layer of a receiver, comprising: synchronizing a time in the transmitter with a time in the receiver and synchronously incrementing the times thereafter; generating a timestamp for a data unit in the transmitter; storing the data unit in a retransmission memory unit in the transmitter; transmitting the data unit along with the timestamp from the transmitter to the receiver; receiving the data unit at the physical layer in the receiver; and selectively forwarding the received data unit from the physical layer to the corresponding second network interface of the receiver based on whether a time as measured by the receiver has a predetermined relationship with the timestamp plus a minimum delay threshold, wherein the received data unit is held in the physical layer of the receiver without being forwarded to the corresponding second network interface so long as the time as measured by the receiver is less than the timestamp plus the minimum delay threshold.