A technique increases the efficiency of functions performed by an intermediate device of a computer network by encoding a portion of a routing information field of a token ring frame transported over the network with information for use by the device. A communication connection being supported by the switching center is analyzed to determine whether intolerable reflections are being received from an associated trunk. One embodiment of the invention provides strong error protection for data communications at very high throughput, and makes parallel Viterbi decoding implementation easier at the receiver side.