Method and apparatus for ensuring transmission of critical data through a wireless adapter

Abstract

In embodiments a host reserves capacity of a wireless adapter for critical data transmission. Critical data is injected into a transport interface of the host, which passes the critical data to the wireless adapter for wireless transmission to a destination device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for handling critical data at a destination device, comprising:
 receiving a data packet from a remote device at a wireless adapter of the destination device;   passing the data packet to a transport interface of the destination device;   determining at the destination device that a header field of the data packet indicates the packet contains critical data; and   passing the critical data directly to a corresponding critical application instantiation of the destination device, wherein the critical data does not pass through a protocol stack associated with the wireless adapter.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining that the header field indicates that the packet contains critical data comprises determining that the header field contains a pre-selected value to indicate critical data. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the header field is a channel identifier field, and the pre-selected value is an illegal channel. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the critical data comprises voice data associated with a push to talk operation, passing the critical data directly to the corresponding critical application comprises passing the critical data to a push to talk application of the destination device. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein passing the critical data directly to the corresponding critical application comprises calling an application programming interface of the corresponding critical application from the transport interface.