Patent ID: 8031607

Claim:
A method for implementing header compression and traffic management functionality in a network node, the method comprising: receiving, at the network node, a packet belonging to a flow, the received packet including a marking used to identify a quality of service (QoS) required for the received packet; performing QoS classification based upon the marking; performing buffer management in the network node to determine whether a current occupancy level of a buffer in the network node is greater than a threshold level; when the current occupancy level of the buffer is less than or equal to the threshold level, performing header compression on the received packet in the network node; after performing the header compression, performing traffic scheduling in the network node to queue the compressed packet in a queue selected from a plurality of queues, each queue having a predetermined QoS associated with a particular level of sensitivity to delay, based on the marking in the compressed packet and to output the compressed packet from the selected queue; and forwarding the outputted packet towards a destination, whereby buffer management, header compression, and traffic scheduling are all performed in a single network node; wherein the step of performing header compression on the packet further comprises: accessing a plurality of fields associated with the packet to identify the flow associated with the packet; and assigning a compression context identifier to the packet, wherein the compression context identifier is a value uniquely assigned to the identified flow.