US Patent 7724658 Protocol offload transmit traffic management

Transfer of data is facilitated between at least one application and a peer via a network. Data destined for the peer is provided from the at least one application for transmission to the peer via the network. Modulation event tokens are managed, and protocol processing of the data with the peer is based in part on a result of the modulation event tokens managing such that protocol processed data is caused to be transmitted to the peer via the network nominally with desired data transmission rate characteristics. A result of the protocol processing step is fed back to the to the modulation event tokens managing. The desired data transmission rate characteristics may include, for example, shaping and pacing.