Method and apparatus for overcoming large transport delays between master and slave utopia devices

A system for communicating information includes a master UTOPIA device having a receive transfer controller operable to control reception of data by the master UTOPIA device and a transmit transfer controller operable to control transmission of data from the ATM switch. The system also includes a slave UTOPIA device having at least one memory area. The slave UTOPIA device includes a receive poll controller operable to determine whether the memory area is available to transmit data for receipt by the master UTOPIA device and further operable to communicate the result of the determination to the receive transfer controller. The slave UTOPIA device also includes a transmit poll controller operable to determine whether the memory area is available for receiving data to be transmitted by the master UTOPIA device and further operable to communicate the result of the determination to the transmit transfer controller.