Patent ID: 8056089

Claim:
In a data processing system having one or more operating systems (OS) and a plurality of software entities executing thereon, a processor implemented method comprising: an operating system of the one or more operating systems receiving a request from an originating software entity to open a network connection via a call to a routine in a networking/sockets application programming interface (API); the operating system determining from an internal routing table whether a destination address of a destination node of the request is a local address, wherein the local address is the local address of a software entity in the operating system on a same physical device as the originating software entity from which the request was generated; in response to determining the destination address of the destination node is a local address, the operating system generating an interprocess communication (IPC) construct within the operating system to replace a conventional network/socket connection between the originating software entity and a destination software entity; wherein the destination address is determined to be local when the destination address points to a location of the destination software entity when the destination software entity exists within a same OS and on the same physical device as the originating software entity, and when the originating software entity and the destination software entity exists within separate software partitions on the same OS and the same physical device; and in response to the destination address being a local address, utilizing a loopback interface to transmit/receive packets to/from the destination node in lieu of a local network interface indicated by the conventional network/socket connection.