Alternate acknowledgment (ack) signals in a coalescing transmission control protocol/internet protocol (tcp/ip) system

A network interface card (NIC), comprising:

• a downlink (DL) interface configured to transmit and receive packets with a processor;
• an uplink (UL) interface configured to transmit and receive packets with a remote server;
• a control system configured to:
• receive a packet including a piggyback acknowledgment (ACK) through the UL interface;
• before coalescing the packet, extract the piggyback ACK;
• before coalescing the packet, send the piggyback ACK to the processor as a DL ACK through the DL interface;
• and
• subsequently coalesce the packet with at least a second packet received through the UL interface.

A system using a packet aggregation algorithm to aggregate packets sent from a remote server to a local processor, the system comprising:

• a network interface card (NIC) configured to:
• preemptively pull piggyback acknowledgments (ACKs) out of packets returned to the NIC from a remote server;
• and
• send the piggyback ACKs to a local processor before payloads of the packets are coalesced and sent to the local processor.