Patent ID: 6788707
Filing Date: 2004-09-07
Classification: H04L,H04Q,H04W

Abstract:
A method for suppressing and expanding a data packet header contained in a data packet, in hardware of a cable modem system, the method comprising:adding an extended header element to the data packet, the extended header element containing an index used in combination with a service identifier (SID) to locate a rule that determines how the data packet header is to be suppressed; suppressing the data packet header using the rule; transmitting the data packet and the suppressed data packet header; and expanding the suppressed data packet header by reading the index and using the corresponding rule; wherein a cable modem termination system uses the rule which defines a mask describing which bytes of the data packet header are to be suppressed, and transmits information indicative of information contained in the rule to at least one cable modem.