diff --git a/src/node/socket.cc b/src/node/socket.cc
index 768fdd170..18a15b0e9 100644
--- a/src/node/socket.cc
+++ b/src/node/socket.cc
@@ -130,6 +130,14 @@ Socket::Recv (void)
   return Recv (std::numeric_limits<uint32_t>::max(), 0);
 }
 
+int 
+Socket::Recv (uint8_t* buf, uint32_t size, uint32_t flags)
+{
+  Ptr<Packet> p = Recv (size, flags); // read up to "size" bytes
+  memcpy (buf, p->PeekData (), p->GetSize());
+  return p->GetSize ();
+}
+
 int Socket::SendTo (const uint8_t* buf, uint32_t size, const Address &address)
 {
   NS_LOG_FUNCTION_NOARGS ();
diff --git a/src/node/socket.h b/src/node/socket.h
index d0705762f..b0f53e8eb 100644
--- a/src/node/socket.h
+++ b/src/node/socket.h
@@ -328,6 +328,19 @@ public:
    * 0 if the socket cannot return a next in-sequence packet.
    */
    Ptr<Packet> Recv (void);
+  /**
+   * \brief Recv data (or dummy data) from the remote host
+   * \param buf A pointer to a raw byte buffer to write the data to. 
+   * If the underlying packet was carring null (fake) data, this buffer
+   * will be zeroed up to the length specified by the return value.
+   * \param size Number of bytes (at most) to copy to buf
+   * \param flags any flags to pass to the socket
+   * \returns number of bytes copied into buf
+   * 
+   * This is provided so as to have an API which is closer in appearance 
+   * to that of real network or BSD sockets.  
+   */
+  int Recv (uint8_t* buf, uint32_t size, uint32_t flags);
   /**
    * Return number of bytes which can be returned from one or 
    * multiple calls to Recv.