Patent ID: 8548012

Claim:
A method for encoding a target packet in a manner for reducing redundancy of information in the target packet, the method comprising: identifying a region of the target packet that matches a region of a stored packet; removing, from the target packet, the identified region of the target packet; and inserting, within the target packet, an encoding key comprising a hash of the stored packet and information that indicates positions of the matched regions in, respectively, the stored and target packets; wherein the information that indicates positions of the matched regions in, respectively, the stored and target packets is represented using a four byte value; wherein the information that indicates positions of the matched regions in, respectively, the stored and target packets comprises an offset of the matched region in the stored packet, an offset of the matched region in the target packet, and a length of the matched regions, wherein: when the length of the matched regions is less than 512 bytes, the offset of the matched region in the stored packet is encoded using 11 bits, the offset of the matched region in the target packet is encoded using 11 bits, and the length of the matched regions is encoded using 9 bits; when the length of the matched regions is greater than or equal to 512 bytes but less than 1024 bytes, the offset of the matched region in the stored packet is encoded using 10 bits, the offset of the matched region in the target packet is encoded using 10 bits, and the length of the matched regions is encoded using 10 bits; and when the length of the matched region is greater than or equal to 1024 bytes, the offset of the matched region in the stored packet is encoded using 9 bits, the offset of the matched region in the target packet is encoded using 9 bits, and the length of the matched regions is encoded using 11 bits.