The present invention provides an improved method and system for
controlling packet flow through a protocol stack. The system comprises the
layer manager which interfaces with each stack layer. The layer manager
handles the packet flow to the stack layers. For a new packet path to be
supported, only the Layer Manager needs to be modified, not the stack
layers. This makes the implementation of the layers in the protocol stack
easier. In an alternative embodiment, the layer manager comprises a
plurality of protocol descriptor lists for supported services and uses
these lists to route a packet to the appropriate stack layer. With this
alternative embodiment, new stack layers may be inserted into the protocol
stack without the need to modify the existing stack layers.
