Method of maintaining packet order in multipath transmission systems having non-uniform traffic splitting

This invention relates generally to the field of communications and switching systems and in particular, to a method of packet resequencing where multiple limited-bandwidth paths are available for data transmission between a source and a destination. A method to restore the original order of packets in an end-to-end data flow after the flow has been multiplexed over a set of communication or switching paths whose available bandwidth varies significantly over time. To convey the relative path ordering, the method considers all possible path pairs. For each such path pair it enumerates the packet block transmissions, i.e., the sequences of packets transmitted on a selected path of the given path pair which are not interleaved by the packets transmitted on the other path of the same pair. Packet block enumeration for each path pair is performed independently and does not take into account any packets transmitted on the other paths. A packet transmitted on a given path carries a set of packet block identifications for each path pair the given path belongs to. Increasing the range of the packet block enumeration, the robustness of the method can be adjusted to an arbitrary level of packet loss tolerance.