Patent ID: 7945705

Claim:
A method of operating an interface device configured for communication with a local device via a local bus of the local device, wherein the interface device is further configured to fully offload protocol processing of connections, including connection setup, teardown and payload data transfer processing to accomplish operation of the connections among the local device and peer devices via a network according to a particular wire communication protocol, such that the interface device operates as a termination of the connections, the method comprising: in at least one of the local device and the interface device, generating configuration messages regarding communication among the local device and the interface device relating to interoperation of the local device and the interface device relative to the connections; and communicating the configuration messages among the local device and the interface device according to a local protocol that is different from the particular wire communication protocol; wherein the local protocol includes at least an indication, within each configuration message, of whether that configuration message is a data plane message encapsulating payload data of the connections or whether that configuration message instead is a control plane message including control information relating to controlling interoperation of the local device and the interface device relative to the connections and not including payload data of the connections.