Patent ID: 7408957

Claim:
A method for routing a plurality of data packets in a network, each of the data packets comprising a data payload and a plurality of protocol headers, comprising: generating a plurality of compressed dispatch messages, one each from each of the plurality of data packets, by: classifying a data packet format by sequentially analyzing the data packet protocol headers; extracting a subset plurality of fields from the analyzed data packet protocol headers appropriate to the classified format, the subset having a quantity of fields less than a total of fields of the analyzed data packet protocol header plurality; and concatenating the extracted subset fields to generate a compressed dispatch message for the data packet, the compressed dispatch message associated with the data packet and having the classified format; selecting a subset plurality of the plurality of generated compressed dispatch messages, each of the subset plurality having a format similar to the classified format; concatenating the compressed dispatch message subset plurality into a composite dispatch message; processing the composite dispatch message; and in response to processing the composite dispatch message, routing each of the data packets associated with the selected compressed dispatch message subset plurality.