Patent ID: 8073979

Claim:
A system, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory in communication with said at least one processor when the system is operational; a physical network interface card (NIC) in communication with said at least one processor when the system is operational; computer executable instructions stored in said at least one memory that when executed by said at least one processor instantiate a first partition, said first partition controlling access to the physical NIC; computer executable instructions stored in said at least one memory that when executed by said at least one processor instantiate a communication channel between the first partition and a second partition, wherein the second partition is configured to send data packets that are not fully framed from a virtual NIC in a second partition to the first partition; computer executable instructions stored in said at least one memory that when executed by said at least one processor instantiate a control channel that is separate from said communication channel, said control channel configured to communicate control data messages between the virtual NIC and the first partition, wherein said control data messages enable the communication of not fully framed data packets between the virtual NIC and the first partition; and computer executable instructions stored in said at least one memory that when executed by said at least one processor cause the data packets received by the first partition from the virtual NIC to be sent to a TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) in the physical NIC, wherein the physical NIC converts the data packets into a plurality of packets that are fully framed.