Managing sequence values with added headers in computing devices

A data processing method comprising:

• receiving, from a client computer, a first TCP SYN segment comprising a first client TCP sequence number;
• sending to a server computer a second TCP SYN segment comprising a second client TCP sequence number equal to the first client TCP sequence number less an added data length value;
• receiving a first TCP SYN ACK data segment and sending a second TCP SYN ACK data segment and determining that connections to the client computer and the server computer have reached established states;
• receiving from the client computer a first TCP data segment comprising a data length value;
• forming a second TCP data segment that comprises:
• payload data from the first TCP data segment;
• added data that is equal in length to the added data length value;
• and a second data length value equal to a sum of the first payload data length value and the added data length value;
• sending the second TCP data segment to the server computer;
• wherein the method is performed using one or more computing devices.

A computer system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a switching system coupled to the one or more processors and configured to receive data packets on an ingress interface, to determine an egress interface on which to forward the data packets toward a destination from among a plurality of available egress interfaces, and to forward the data packets on the egress interface;
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media coupled to the one or more processors and storing one or more sequences of instructions which when executed using the one or more processors cause performing:
• receiving, from a client computer, a first handshake message segment comprising a first client sequence value;
• sending to a server computer a second handshake message segment comprising a second client sequence value equal to the first client sequence value less an added data length value;
• receiving a third handshake message segment from the client computer and sending a fourth handshake message segment to the server computer and determining that connections to the client computer and the server computer have reached established states;
• receiving from the client computer a first data segment comprising a first data length value;
• forming a second data segment that comprises:
• payload data from the first data segment;
• added data that is equal in size to the added data length value;
• and a second data length value equal to a sum of the first data length value and the added data length value;
• sending the second data segment to the server computer.