Method and apparatus to reduce the cost of preparing the checksum for out bound data in network communication protocols by caching

摘要

A method and apparatus that improves the efficiency of outbound data management for information transmitted over a communication network protocol by eliminating unnecessary operations related to the checksum when associated data has not changed since the last determination of the checksum. Overall computer system costs are reduced by eliminating checksum functionality on computer networking cards and thereby minimizing overall checksum functionality requirements in the computer system. The checksum that is derived on the first instance of data transmittal is cached. Thereafter, on subsequent transmissions of the data, the cached checksum may be re-used. Further, partial checksums can be calculated for portions of data that will be transmitted. The partial checksums may be combined to create a checksum that represents the aggregate of the data that will be transmitted.