since it is expecting packet 0, and asks for retransmission of packets [0,M-1]. 12: Node B has already released these packets, so the broadcast link is stale in direction B->A. We solve this problem by introducing a new unicast message type, BCAST_PROTOCOL/STATE, to convey the sequence number of the next sent broadcast packet to the other endpoint, at exactly the moment that endpoint is added to the own node's broadcast receivers list, and before any other unicast messages are permitted to be sent. Furthermore, we don't allow any node to start receiving and processing broadcast packets until this new synchronization message has been received. To maintain backwards compatibility, we still open up for broadcast reception if we receive a NAME_DISTR message without any preceding broadcast sync message. In this case, we must assume that the other end has an older code version, and will never send out the new synchronization message. Hence, for mixed old and new nodes, the issue arising in 7-12 of the above may happen with the same probability as before. Signed-off-by: Jon Maloy Signed-off-by: Ying Xue Signed-off-by: Paul Gortmaker Ù£í