Patent ID: 7411968

Claim:
A method comprising: reading a next packet descriptor pointer in a VC queue descriptor associated with a first VC to determine the memory location of a first packet descriptor associated with a first packet to be de-queued, wherein the next packet descriptor pointer has a value indicating the memory location of the first packet descriptor and wherein the VC queue descriptor includes a next buffer descriptor having a value indicating the memory location of a first buffer descriptor; reading the first packet descriptor, wherein the first packet descriptor includes a first buffer descriptor pointer having a value indicating the memory location of a first buffer descriptor associated with the first packet; reading the first buffer descriptor to determine the memory location of a first buffer memory to be de-queued, wherein the first buffer descriptor includes a first buffer pointer having a value indicating the location of the first buffer memory; obtaining a second buffer descriptor pointer having a value indicating a memory location of a second buffer descriptor from the first buffer descriptor; copying the value of the second buffer descriptor pointer from the first buffer descriptor to a next buffer descriptor pointer of the VC queue descriptor so that the next buffer descriptor pointer of the VC queue descriptor points to the second buffer descriptor; and de-queuing the data stored in the first buffer memory.