A Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) performs a sender initiated recovery algorithm (SIRA) upon receiving, from an L2TP receiver, a predefined number of packets including the same "next received" (Nr) sequence number. The L2TP sender transmits a payload message that includes the "Reset Sr" (R-bit) indicator, which resets the value for Nr (at the receiver) to either just beyond the first missing packet or to the current send sequence number of the sender.