Packet discarding method and packet discarding device in data network performing automatic retransmission request

摘要

Techniques are provided for use with automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes in a data network to minimize a bandwidth used by a receiver and a transmitter in the network to transfer data packets, by discarding outdated packets that have not yet been successfully transferred. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a bit is set in the ARQ packet header to force the receiver to accept packets subsequent to one or more erroneous or unreceived packets that have been discarded and not resent. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, after data packets have been discarded, sequence numbers are reassigned to the non-discarded data packets that are yet to be sent to the receiver, so that a transmitted stream of the non-discarded packets will have consecutive sequence numbers.