Patent ID: 7386013

Claim:
A network device comprising: logic configured to receive a data unit comprising a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers including: a payload field with a first movie professional experts group (MPEG) header, a real-time protocol (RTP) header, a user data protocol (UDP) header, an Internet Protocol (IP) header, a media access control (MAC) header, an extended header, and a second MPEG header; logic configured to suppress one or more headers of the plurality of headers to form a reduced data unit, the logic configured to suppress one or more headers of the plurality of data unit headers including: logic configured to remove the UDP header, the IP header, the MAC header, and at least a portion of the RTP header, logic configured to form a first index based on information associated with the removed UDP header, IP header, MAC header, and a portion of the RTP header, and logic configured to store the first index in the extended header; logic configured to suppress one or more other headers of the reduced data unit to form a further reduced data unit; and logic configured to transmit the further reduced data unit to one or more destination devices.