New applications with specific communication requirements are now being considered. These requirements put stringent constraints on both the performance and the service provided by communication protocols over high speed networks. The performance enhancement of these protocols is an essential step toward the building of high performance communication subsystems. In this paper, we present work on the high speed implementation of both presentation and transport functions. We show how Integrated Layer Processing based optimizations increase the performance of costly data manipulation functions. We also present a framework for the design of integrated communication subsystems based on Application Level Framing and Integrated Layer Processing.