Computer hardware and computer software programs for packet loss recovery and error correction featuring acceleration of TCP/IP based application performance through eliminating re-transmissions and providing a reliable network for loss intolerant applications Key technology pillar used in the ASE product. - Refers to the ability of the ASE to compensate for packet loss which may occur during transmission over wide area networks using a proprietary forward error correction technique. - As part of the processing within the ASE, ingress traffic (either Ethernet or Fibre Channel) is encapsulated using Generic Framing Procedure normalizing to Ethernet. Hence the term "Ether". - As an optional operation, all traffic can error corrected, hence the term "Correct". - The ASE allows users to specify a consecutive string of packets, N. N can be as low as 2 (i.e. every two consecutive packets) or as high as 10 (i.e. every tenth consecutive packet). - A copy of N is inserted, or stuffed, into the datagram prior to encapsulation into the HyperTUNNEL - Upon delivery at the destination location, the corresponding ASE3300 can detect if any of the received packets/bits were undelivered or delivered out of order. If detected, the ASE can reconstruct the missing packets/bits using the stuffed traffic. Depending on the value of N selected, the ASE can reconstruct as many as every second packet or as few as every tenth packet. - By recovering lost packets/bits occurred during wide area transmission, higher layer protocols (e.g. TCP/IP, UDP, etc.) will experience improved performance as a result of reduced data loss, enabling higher sustained levels of throughput and performance (e.g. less latency as a result of having to re-transmit lost data)