TCP-offload-engine based zero-copy sockets

摘要

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for sending data to a remote host using a socket. During operation the system receives a request from an application to write data to the socket, wherein the data is stored in a source memory buffer in user memory. Next, the system initiates a DMA (Direct Memory Access) transfer to transfer the data from the source memory buffer to a target memory buffer in a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) Offload Engine. The system then returns control to the application without waiting for the TCP Offload Engine to send the data to the remote host.