An HME has exchange elements at opposite ends of a tubular housing and a central port for connection to a tracheal tube. A method is provided comprising the steps of providing a trunk network including multiple links including an RF link and a fiber link, wherein all the transmission links transmit data packets to a receiver which will redistribute the earliest data packets with a matching frame check sequence over the second packet switched computer network. These likelihood advantages need not be necessarily dispositive with respect to the resultant interpretation.