Method and apparatus for managing buffers for transmitting packets

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for managing buffers, the computer program product comprising:
• computer usable program code for monitoring a number of buffers present in a pool of buffers assigned to a network device driver, wherein buffers in the pool of buffers are used to process packets of data for transmission onto a network;
• and
• computer usable program code for denying a request from a transport layer for a buffer from the pool of buffers if the number of buffers falls below a threshold level, wherein at least one buffer is present in a buffer pool if the number of buffers falls below the threshold level.

A data processing system comprising:

• a bus;
• a communications unit connected to the bus;
• a storage device connected to the bus, wherein the storage device includes computer usable program code;
• and
• a processor unit connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the computer usable program code to monitor a number of buffers present in a pool of buffers assigned to a network device driver, wherein buffers in the pool of buffers are used to process packets of data for transmission onto a network, and deny a request from a transport layer for a buffer from the pool of buffers if the number of buffers falls below a threshold level, wherein at least one buffer is present in a buffer pool if the number of buffers falls below the threshold level.