Method and apparatus for processing data in a network

1. A method comprising:

allocating a data buffer in a shared memory region of a computing device;

writing, into the data buffer in a compatible data format for communicating according to a network protocol stack, communication data comprising a header portion and a body portion into the data buffer, wherein writing the communication data comprises serializing and/or encrypting the communication data in the compatible data format, and wherein the compatible data format is compatible for an application layer to a transport layer in an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model;

generating a modified header portion by appending the header portion with address data that indicates an address of the communication data in the data buffer, wherein the modified header portion comprises a flag bit identifying the header portion as the modified header portion; and

processing the modified header portion through the network protocol stack.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

parsing the modified header portion to determine the address data; and

accessing the body portion based on the address data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the modified header portion comprises determining that the body portion is decoupled from the header portion.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the header portion comprises a middleware protocol header.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modified header portion comprises an index specifying a location of data packets in the shared memory region.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing quality of service (QoS) checks based on the modified header portion.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is applied to an autonomous vehicle system.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the body portion comprises a format header and a user payload.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising parsing the format header to parse the user payload.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a shared memory region;

a communication regulator communicatively coupled to the shared memory region and configured to:

allocate a data buffer in the shared memory region; and

generate a modified header portion by appending a header portion of data, wherein the modified header portion comprises address data that determines a location of the data in the data buffer, and wherein the modified header portion comprises a flag bit identifying the header portion as the modified header portion; and

a data management system communicatively coupled to the communication regulator and configured to store the data in the data buffer in a compatible data format for communication through a network protocol stack, wherein the data is serialized and/or encrypted in the shared memory region in the compatible data format, and wherein the compatible data format is compatible for an application layer through to a transport layer in an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising an interface communicatively coupled to the communication regulator and data management system and configured to facilitate data communication with external applications.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising a protocol stack system communicatively coupled to the shared memory region and configured to implement the network protocol stack.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising a shared memory management system communicatively coupled to the shared memory region and configured to manage the data in the shared memory region.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the header portion comprises a middleware protocol header.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the modified header portion comprises an index specifying a location of data packets in the shared memory region.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the body portion comprises a format header and a user payload.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the communication regulator is further configured to parse the format header to parse the user payload.

18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer program product that comprises computer-executable instructions and that, when executed by a processor, cause an apparatus to:

allocate a data buffer in a shared memory region of the apparatus;

write, into the data buffer in a compatible data format for communicating according to a network protocol stack, communication data comprising a header portion and body portion into the data buffer, wherein in order to write the communication data, when executed by the processor, the computer instructions further cause the apparatus to serialize and/or encrypt the communication data in the compatible data format, and wherein the compatible data format is compatible for an application layer through to a transport layer in an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model;

generate a modified header portion by appending the header portion with address data that indicates an address of the communication data in the data buffer, wherein the modified header portion comprises a flag bit identifying the header portion as the modified header portion; and

process the modified header portion through the network protocol stack.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein when executed by the processor, the computer-executable instructions further cause the apparatus to:

parse the modified header portion to determine the address data; and

access the body portion based on the address data.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein when executed by the processor, the computer-executable instructions further cause the apparatus to process the modified header portion to determine that the body portion is decoupled from the header portion.