Immediate negative acknowledgement for a communication network

A method of recovering data transmitted over a medium of a network from a transmitting node to a receiving node, comprising the steps of:

• examining destination address information of a data packet received at the receiving node to determine whether the data packet was uniquely addressed to that receiving node, a conforming data packet having destination address information and a data payload;
• determining at the receiving node whether the data payload of the data packet has an error, when the destination address information indicates that the data packet was uniquely addressed to that receiving node;
• and
• accepting the data packet when the data payload does not have an error;
• and
• immediately sending a negative acknowledgement to the transmitting node when the data payload has an error, wherein the transmitting node and the receiving node interpacket time between data packets that each node is normally required to wait before attempting to transmit data on the network, the step of immediately sending a negative acknowledgement including sending the negative acknowledgement prior to expiration of the interpacket time following receipt of the data packet at the receiving node.