Patent ID: 8274976

Claim:
A method for processing network information, the method comprising: maintaining a flow lookup table (FLT) which comprises flow identifiers that define network flows; obtaining a particular flow identifier from among the flow identifiers in the flow lookup table, the particular flow identifier specifying a TCP segment characteristic defining a particular network flow from among the network flows for aggregation; collecting a plurality of transmission control protocol (TCP) segments by a network interface card (NIC) processor, said plurality of transmission control protocol (TCP) segments received for the particular network flow which matches the particular flow identifier without transferring current state information regarding the particular network flow to a host system; generating a new TCP segment and new state information based on aggregating at least a portion of said collected plurality of said TCP segments received for the particular network flow; and communicating said generated new TCP segment and said new state information for the generated new TCP segment to the host system.