Patent ID: 7924731

Claim:
A header decompressor for use in a remote terminal which receives, over a link, packets including packets having headers which have been compressed and packets which are potentially out-of-order, wherein the header decompressor is configured to perform the following acts: (1) detecting non-receipt of packets anticipated in a flow of packets over the link; (2) storing in a memory plural snapshots of decompression context information, each of the plural snapshots having been obtained from a different successfully decompressed packet which preceded detection of non-receipt of a packet anticipated in a flow of packets, each snapshot comprising header decompression context information existing in the respective successfully decompressed packet at the respective non-receipt, and configured to update context fields including context fields other than a serial number field or a time stamp field; (3) upon header decompression failure for a subsequently received packet, attempting to use the plural snapshots, individually and sequentially, to decompress the header for the subsequently received packet and thereby determine which of the plural snapshots are used to decompress the header for the subsequently received packet in a repair process.