Patent ID: 7577759

Claim:
A method for transferring data content between one or more input streams and one or more output streams controlled by an application running on a host system, said method comprising the steps of: providing an operating system kernel-level transfer service which is adapted to perform application-specific processing of data content and which attends to transfer of content from at least one input stream to at least one output stream; and performing, with the operating system kernel-level transfer service, an operation for collection of at least one input stream and at least one output stream via: performing application-specific processing, wherein said application-specific processing comprises modifying the data content via modifying a packet payload; and attending to the transfer of content from at least one input stream to at least one output stream; wherein the at least one input stream and the at least one output stream are external to the application; wherein said operating system kernel-level transfer service is provided in response to a request for an operating system kernel level offloading of a content transfer and the request indicates a set of input and output streams, a pre-registered procedure to be invoked for each input stream, a set of application-specific processing parameters to each input stream, a type of transfer termination, content caching requirements, and whether interaction is synchronous or asynchronous.