Abstract: A circular buffer is used to receive packets transmitted to an application. Normally, incoming packets are placed at the “tail” of the buffer, which is indicated by the write pointer. Packets to be used by the application are read from the “head” of the buffer, which is indicated by the read pointer. In contrast, the present invention uses the sequence number to direct the packets to specific places in the circular buffer. This inventive use of sequence number allows the packets to be written at the proper place in the buffer, regardless of the location of the write pointer. Within certain limits, a packet that arrives out of sequence is not bound by the position of the write pointer to be placed into the buffer out of sequence. This abstract is provided as a tool for those searching for patents, and not as a limitation on the scope of the claims.