Patent ID: 6111894
Filing Date: 2000-08-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method for communicating from a node to a communications device in a multinode network, the node having a user space and a Kernel space, and further comprising a communications protocol layer above said communications device, said method comprising:creating an instance of a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) interface in the node, said HAL interface comprising a communications layer between the communications device and the communications protocol layer and providing for functions that control access to the communications devices from said user space in the node;obtaining device specific characteristics from the communications device and a pointer pointing to access functions in said functions for accessing said communications device;opening multiple ports on the communications device through the instance of said HAL interface using said functions; andsending messages between the node and the communications device using said access functions pointed to by said pointer, wherein the messages are optimized with respect to the communications device as determined by the obtained device specific characteristics, and said messages are communicated directly to said communications layer below said communications protocol layer thereby bypassing said Kernel space.