In one embodiment, a system comprises at least a first node and a second node coupled to a network. The second node comprises a local memory and a direct memory access (DMA) controller coupled to the local memory. The first node is configured to transmit at least a first packet to the second node to access data in the local memory and at least one other packet that is not coded to access the local memory. The second node is configured to capture the packet from a data link layer of a protocol stack, and wherein the DMA controller is configured to perform one more transfers with the local memory to access the data specified by the first packet responsive to the first packet received from the data link layer. The second node is configured to process the other packet to a top of the protocol stack.