An apparatus includes a memory and control circuitry. The control circuitry is configured to receive packets, which are en-route to undergo transport-layer processing in a network device in accordance with a transport protocol that requires arrival of the packets in a sequential order, to detect that one or more of the packets deviate from the sequential order, to buffer the one or more deviating packets in the memory, and, using the memory, to reorder the packets and provide the packets in the sequential order to the network device.