US Patent 7289504 Method and apparatus for generating a connection identification

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating an identification to be used for a connection in a network. The identification is generated by adding a reuse information (reuse field or bit) to an allocated identifier to thereby increase the time period until the same identification is generated again. The reuse information is updated and used for generating the new identification when the allocated identifier is reallocated to a new connection. Since the time period until the same identification is reused is increased, the risk of misrouting any data packets relating to a destroyed connection can be significantly reduced.