Patent ID: 8090790

Claim:
A method for transferring data in a communications system, the method comprising: receiving, at a network interface controller (NIC), a read request message that specifies data comprising at least one data stripe; selecting based on said received read request, at least one splicing steering tag from an aggregated splicing steering tag, wherein said aggregated splicing steering tag comprises a plurality of splicing steering tags, and each of said plurality of splicing steering tags is associated with a respective one of a plurality of external auxiliary storage devices for use in storing data accessed via said NIC; generating, within said NIC and based on said selected at least one splicing steering tag, at least one address for retrieval of said at least one data stripe, wherein said at least one address is associated with at least one of said plurality of external auxiliary storage devices; receiving, at said NIC, at least a portion of said at least one data stripe within at least one direct data placement (DDP) segment based on said generated at least one address; and transmitting, from said NIC, said received at least a portion of said at least one data stripe within at least one packet.