Patent ID: 6963570

Claim:
An apparatus for a satellite/wireless communication system for transmitting information in a plurality of cell/packets, said system comprising at least two local area networks that are connected by a satellite/wireless communication link, said apparatus comprising: (i) means for discriminating each cell/packet in said plurality of cell/packets; (ii) means for detecting a header in each of said cell/packets and for separating said header from payload; (iii) means for compressing said separated header using a look up table; and (iv) means for combining said compressed header with said payload to form compressed header cell/packets; (v) means for discriminating each compressed header cell/packet in said plurality of compressed header cell/packets; (vi) means for detecting a header in each of said compressed header cell/packets and for separating said header from payload; (vii) means for decompressing said separated header; and (viii) means for combining said decompressed header with said payload to form cell/packets; wherein said means for compressing and said means for decompressing comprises means for correlating original header and transmitted compressed header information, and said apparatus further comprising means for transmitting via said satellite/wireless communication link from a transmitting location, comprising means (i)–(iv), to a receiving location, comprising means (v)–(viii), information for correlating original header and transmitted header information.