Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for reducing frame overhead in communications on local area networks are disclosed herein. The frame overhead is reduced in communications on local area networks by removing unnecessary addressing information from frames prior to transmission on the network. Logical addressing information, such as an Internet protocol address, is utilized to determine the corresponding physical addressing information, such as an Ethernet media access control address, via an address resolution protocol. The physical addressing information is then incorporated into the frames, and the logical addressing information is removed (or not incorporated into the frame) to provide additional space to carry data, thereby increasing the data throughput of the network connection and potentially reducing the number of frames needed to transmit a given communication from a source to a destination within the network.

Abstract: The present invention provides for controlling the order in which packets received from across a network may be processed. A receiver station examines the packets and determines a property of the packet. A priority level is associated with the packet prior to processing. The packet is placed into a queue and processed in an order based at least in part on its priority level. The method may be used to expedite or slow the processing of particular packets, such as advancing the processing order for acknowledgment packets. In addition, other aspects of the present invention relating to determining an order for processing packets by a receiver station.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to manage a packet array for a device driver is described.

Abstract: A driver having an interrupt service routine including an interrupt handler and at least two deferred procedure calls. Each of the at least two deferred procedure calls is associated with a particular interrupt event or type of interrupt event. If multiple interrupt events occur, the interrupt events may be concurrently processed on separate deferred procedure calls, resulting in a substantially reduced interrupt handling latency.

Abstract: A statistics reporting process includes a status information process for receiving status information concerning individual data packets. A statistics information process receives statistical information concerning various bus conditions. A unified write process stores the status information and the statistical information on a storage device using a single write procedure.

Abstract: The length of the data being received from a sending network is determined, a relay threshold is determined, and relay of the data to a receiving network is initiated when a received portion of the data exceeds the relay threshold.

Abstract: A network driver for transmitting packets. For a particular embodiment the driver receives an indication that a packet is available for transmission and monitors a packet pending transmission status of a network controller. The driver then indicates to the network controller that the packet is available for transmission only when the pending transmission status in one particular embodiment reaches a threshold value. Thus the driver determines how many packets to provide a network controller based on the amount of packets still waiting to be transmitted by the controller.