This invention relates to techniques for managing the transmission and reception of data fragments that contains one or more data blocks using a single timer. One embodiment of the invention includes the following steps: processing the fragments sequentially, wherein each fragment has a processing index that corresponds to sequential processing of that fragment; processing each of the fragments until a termination upon meeting a first pre-defined condition; assigning a timer to an un-terminated fragment having a lowest processing index; starting said timer having a timeout value; and running said timer until the processing of said un-terminated fragment is terminated. This invention uses only one timer for each connection and therefore reduces memory and operational needs in the management of the data fragments that are being received or transmitted.