Patent ID: 7372864

Claim:
A method of temporarily holding data during transfer through a network, the method comprising: receiving data in at least one data unit (hereinafter “ingress data unit”); saving the data received in the ingress data unit in a plurality of buffers of fixed size and storing padding in unused locations of a last buffer in the plurality of buffers; retrieving said data and said padding together, from said plurality of buffers; forming an egress data unit for transmission using said data without said padding from said last buffer; wherein the data in the ingress data unit is insufficient to form the egress data unit; receiving additional data in another data unit; and if the data in the plurality of buffers and the additional data together is in an amount sufficient to form the egress data unit: saving into at least one additional buffer, a portion of additional data needed to form the egress data unit when used with data in the plurality of buffers; storing additional padding in any unused locations of the additional buffer; retrieving the additional data and the additional padding together, from the at least one additional buffer; wherein said forming comprises concatenating said additional data to said data thereby to remove said padding, and said egress data unit is formed without said additional padding from said additional buffer.