Patent ID: 7844742

Claim:
A communication interface for providing an interface between a data link and a data processor, the data processor being capable of supporting an operating system and a user application, the communication interface being arranged to: apply to a first queue located in the address space of a user application data received over the link and identified as being directed to a particular logical data port associated with that application; apply to a second queue located in the address space of the operating system out-of-band data received over the link for the particular logical data port and identified as being directed to the operating system, the second queue being memory mapped into the address space of the user application; and analyze data received over the link and identified as being directed to the operating system or the data port to determine whether that data meets one or more predefined criteria, and if it does meet the criteria transmit an interrupt to the operating system, the predefined criteria being set such that, when the processing of the application is suspended, the communication interface transmits an interrupt to the operating system on receiving data identified as being directed to that data port.