Patent ID: 7412549

Claim:
A method for communicating data between an initiator unit which initiates the communication and a target unit, the method comprising the acts of: the initiator unit indicating a request for a communication thread having a communication thread identifier to initiate a communication; the target unit determining whether the request is accepted or rejected; the target unit determining whether the initiator unit should maintain the request; and the target unit providing information to the initiator unit indicating whether the request is to be maintained, the request is accepted, or the request is rejected, wherein the data is transmitted from the target unit to the initiator unit in accordance with the information, wherein the information is provided by a first signal and a second signal, the first signal indicating the target unit is either ready or not ready, and a second signal indicating the target unit either accepts or rejects the request, the second signal indicating the target unit rejects the request when the first signal indicates that the target unit is not ready.