a balanced approach is provided for interrupt coalescing , wherein interrupts of locking and other small size packets are maximized , while large data segment interrupts are minimized . thus , the most desirable interrupt characteristics of both large data segments and smaller packets are achieved . usefully , a data processing system has an adapter connecting the system to a network to receive incoming packets of varying size , the incoming packets respectively carrying messages to interrupt the system processor . each incoming packet is analyzed , to determine whether or not it meets one or more prespecified criteria , at least a first criterion being related to the size of the incoming packet . the processor is immediately interrupted in accordance with the interrupt message carried by the analyzed packet , if the packet meets all the prespecified criteria . if the analyzed packet does not meet all of the prespecified criteria , the processor is interrupted in accordance with a specified interrupt coalescing technique .