Patent ID: 7167934

Claim:
In a computerized environment including a host computer, a method for reducing the overhead that can otherwise be associated with transferring data packets through a protocol stack by allocating a dedicated buffer region for transferring data packets from a peripheral device to a client driver based on an initial request for data, without sending the requested data through the protocol stack, the method comprising the following: at a client module, an act of initiating a data transfer request that will be sent to a peripheral device, the data transfer request including data request instructions for allocating a buffer that corresponds to the data transfer request; an act of sending the data transfer request through a protocol stack, wherein the data transfer request is mapped to the allocated buffer in order to allow requested data to be directly transferred from the peripheral device to the buffer, and wherein the request instructions are inserted into a schedule at the host controller; an act of receiving at least a portion of the requested data from the peripheral device, which based on the mapping is directed by the host controller to the allocated buffer without processing the requested data through the protocol stack; upon receiving the at least a portion of the requested data into the allocated buffer, an act of deactivating the data request instructions in the host controller schedule, wherein the deactivated data request instructions do not need to be removed from the host controller schedule in order to reduce processing requirements associated with reinserting the data request instructions into the controller schedule; and an act of sending a signal that does not need to be processed by the protocol stack to the client module indicating that the allocated buffer has been filled in order to allow the client module to process the at least a portion of the requested data.