Patent ID: 8356112

Claim:
A method of operating a stateful connection between a host and a peer via a network, the host executing an application configured to receive data packets, including application data, from the peer via the network using the stateful connection between the host and the peer according to a connection-oriented protocol, the method comprising: performing protocol processing for the connection with the peer to, at least in part, obtain the application data from the data packets received from the peer, including indicating a receive window to the peer; placing the obtained application data to host memory application buffer associated with the application, the host memory application buffer not being associated with a host operating system; causing the indicated receive window to be increased based on the host memory application buffer becoming available due to the application consuming application data from the application buffer; and providing flow control by generating the receive window indication, including maintaining an indication of receive window credits based on an amount of the application data placed to the host memory application buffer and further based on the application data in the host memory application buffer being consumed by the application.