flow control 403 congestion control 404 retransmission 405 presentation 406 connection options 407 session management 408 and addressing 410 these independent horizontal functions are particular versions of independent horizontal functions 105 1 to 105 n of fig1 which are implemented in this example information extracted by independent horizontal functions error detection 402 flow control 403 congestion control 404 retransmission 405 and session management 408 is communicated to hops controller 414 over bi directional channels 415 this information will be processed for purposes of adjusting the actions of the transmit side of the horizontal oriented protocol structure such processing can include but is not limited to changing polynomials used for detecting error adjusting the values of transmission windows values retransmitting packets and temporarily halting packet transmission although the actual processing and transfer of information to the transmit side is done by hops controller 414 for purposes of clarity of flow of information and function independent horizontal functions error detection 402 flow control 403 congestion control 404 retransmission 405 and session management 408 are conceptualized as being connected to their transmit counterparts represented by transmit section 411 the actual dual nature of the structure of the independent horizontal functions will be further.