efficiently transferring data between network layers

[pmkasodh@unity.ncsu.edu]

Hi everyone,
What would be an efficient way to transfer data between 2
network layers ?.As I understand simple copying is grossly
inefficient. Also if i try to pass data by just passing pointer
between the layers then according to me we will encounter the
classical producer-consumer problem.

Any insights into techniques that can be used would be helpful

thanks

palash

[David Schwartz]

<pmkasodh@unity.ncsu.edu> wrote in message
news:53df97e5.0307201138.6d9710b8@posting.google.c om...

> What would be an efficient way to transfer data between 2
> network layers ?.As I understand simple copying is grossly
> inefficient. Also if i try to pass data by just passing pointer
> between the layers then according to me we will encounter the
> classical producer-consumer problem.

I don't follow. Why would you have more of a producer-consumer problem
if you pass a pointer than if you copy?

DS

[Michael B Allen]

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 15:38:57 -0400, pmkasodh wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> What would be an efficient way to transfer data between 2
> network layers ?.As I understand simple copying is grossly inefficient.
> Also if i try to pass data by just passing pointer between the layers
> then according to me we will encounter the classical producer-consumer
> problem.
>
> Any insights into techniques that can be used would be helpful

You should be able to just decode and encode messages in the buffer used
to read from or write to the socket. Coping is not necessary. I suppose
this might be what you consider "passing pointers" but I don't see how
this creates a "producer-consumer problem". If your code completely
decodes the message into an appropriate struct the buffer can be reused
to decode the next message. Or you could have a pool of buffers so that
new ones are only created when needed and can be reused.

Here is another related post about the technique I use for encoding and
decoding file formats and network messages.

[url]http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20021117.034856.502278611.10307%40eski mo.com[/url]

The library mentioned is here:

[url]http://www.ioplex.com/~miallen/encdec/[/url]

Also this lib has a "pool" ADT:

[url]http://www.ioplex.com/~miallen/libmba/[/url]

Mike