Patent ID: 6954450

Claim:
In a station of a wireless network, the station coupled to a network device by a network link, the network device including a memory, a method of streaming data over the network link from or to the network device memory during wirelessly transmitting or wirelessly receiving at the station, the method comprising: accepting information describing wherefrom to retrieve a data element including at least some of the data for a to-be-wirelessly-transmitted packet in the case of transmitting, or whereto write a data element including at least some of the data from a wirelessly received packet in the case of receiving, the accepted information including information defining a memory location and an amount data in the network device memory for said data element; setting up a DMA transfer of said data element for the to-be-wirelessly-transmitted packet in the case of transmitting, or from the wirelessly received packet in the case of receiving, the setting up using the defining information; and in the case of transmitting: converting the defining information to a packet of a first type for transport over the network link; sending the packet of the first type via the network link to the network device to be interpreted at the network device to set up sending said data element from the memory of the network device according to the defining information; receiving in response to the sending of the packet of the first type, a packet of a second type that includes said data element; converting the packet of the second type to said data element; and incorporating said data element into the packet for transmission, or, in the case of receiving: extracting said data element from the wirelessly received packet; converting the defining information and encapsulating said data element into a packet of the second type for transport over the network link for said data element to be written into the memory of the network device; and sending the packet of a second type to the network device to be interpreted at the network device to cause the encapsulated data to be written into the memory of the network device according to the defining information, such that, in the case of transmitting, the transfer over the network link of said data element for incorporation into a packet for wireless transmission occurs in real time during transmit time, or such that in the case of receiving, the transfer of said data element from a wirelessly received packet occurs in real time during receive time.