System and method for establishing unique sequence identification in an

Abstract

A computer network is provided with a low-complexity sequence identification number determination method. In one embodiment, the computer network comprises a local node coupled to a remote node by a serial communications link to conduct data exchanges with the remote node. Each data exchange is provided with an exchange identification number, and each data exchange is made up of sequences of consecutive frames. Each sequence transmitted from the local node is assigned a sequence identification number by the local node. To maintain the uniqueness of the serial identification numbers of concurrently active sequences, a portion of each serial identification number is set equal to the exchange identification number of the data exchange of which the sequence is a part. The exchange identification number may be one assigned to the exchange by the remote node. In one implementation, the sequence identification number is a byte having the six most significant bits set equal to the exchange identification number. The local node may include a serial communications transceiver coupled to a transmit controller and a receive controller. The transmit controller would then generate frame headers for each data frame and determine the sequence identification number to be included.