Merge method - Fill typed dataset

Hi!
the issue
I have a typed dataset which I want to fill using a procedure that is executed remotely. It doesn't matter what remoting type I use (.net remoting, web service etc.). The point is that its not a good practice to pass the instance of the dataset to the remoting procedure, since the dataset might already have some data in it.
the question
What's an efficient way to do that
I was thinking of getting a single data table using my remoting procedure and the merge the table into the dataset. Is this a good idea, in terms of processing effort. Would the merging operation add any overhead to the overall process