A system comprising: a first modem comprising a communication interface configured to interface with a link; the system being characterized in that it further comprises: hardware comprising executable logic that when executed causes the first modem to, responsive to determining that a packet was received via a tunnel established in accordance with a first protocol: determine, based on information from one or more headers included in the packet, an endpoint identifier corresponding to the tunnel established in accordance with the first protocol; identify, based on the endpoint identifier and from amongst a plurality of different tunnel indexes corresponding to a plurality of different tunnels established between the first modem and a second modem in accordance with a second protocol, a tunnel index for the packet, the second protocol being different from the first protocol; generate, for the packet, a corresponding packet, the corresponding packet omitting at least a portion of the information from the one or more headers and comprising at least a portion of data included in a payload of the packet and an information block comprising the tunnel index; and transmit, via the communication interface and a tunnel, of the plurality of different tunnels , corresponding to the tunnel index, the corresponding packet to the second modem . a first modem comprising a communication interface configured to interface with a link; the system being characterized in that it further comprises: hardware comprising executable logic that when executed causes the first modem to, responsive to determining that a packet was received via a tunnel established in accordance with a first protocol: determine, based on information from one or more headers included in the packet, an endpoint identifier corresponding to the tunnel established in accordance with the first protocol; identify, based on the endpoint identifier and from amongst a plurality of different tunnel indexes corresponding to a plurality of different tunnels established between the first modem and a second modem in accordance with a second protocol, a tunnel index for the packet, the second protocol being different from the first protocol; generate, for the packet, a corresponding packet, the corresponding packet omitting at least a portion of the information from the one or more headers and comprising at least a portion of data included in a payload of the packet and an information block comprising the tunnel index; and transmit, via the communication interface and a tunnel, of the plurality of different tunnels , corresponding to the tunnel index, the corresponding packet to the second modem . determine, based on information from one or more headers included in the packet, an endpoint identifier corresponding to the tunnel established in accordance with the first protocol; identify, based on the endpoint identifier and from amongst a plurality of different tunnel indexes corresponding to a plurality of different tunnels established between the first modem and a second modem in accordance with a second protocol, a tunnel index for the packet, the second protocol being different from the first protocol; generate, for the packet, a corresponding packet, the corresponding packet omitting at least a portion of the information from the one or more headers and comprising at least a portion of data included in a payload of the packet and an information block comprising the tunnel index; and transmit, via the communication interface and a tunnel, of the plurality of different tunnels , corresponding to the tunnel index, the corresponding packet to the second modem . <EOS>