Patent ID: 8812738

Claim:
A method for transmission and/or deduplication of data across a network, comprising the steps of: receiving a data stream comprising a plurality of zones; analyzing the received data stream to determine a starting location and an ending location of each zone within the received data stream; based on the starting and ending locations, generating a first zone stamp identifying a first zone, the first zone stamp includes a sequence of contiguous characters representing of at least a portion of data in the first zone, wherein the order of characters in the first zone stamp corresponds to the order of data in the first zone; generating a second zone stamp identifying a second zone, the second zone stamp includes a sequence of contiguous characters representing of at least a portion of data in the second zone, wherein the order of characters in the second zone stamp corresponds to the order of data in the second zone, wherein the second zone having a smaller size than the first zone; wherein each zone stamp is configured to have a length between a predetermined minimum zone stamp length and a predetermined maximum zone stamp length; comparing the first zone stamp with another first zone stamp of another first zone in any data stream received; comparing the second zone stamp with another second zone stamp of another second zone in any data stream received; determining whether the first zone is substantially similar to another first zone by detecting that the first zone stamp is substantially similar to another first zone stamp; determining whether the second zone is substantially similar to another second zone by detecting that the second zone stamp is substantially similar to another second zone stamp; delta-compressing zones within any data stream received that have been determined to have substantially similar zone stamps, thereby deduplicating zones having substantially similar zone stamps within the received data stream; and optionally transmitting the deduplicated zones across the network from one storage location to another storage location; wherein each zone in any data stream received is characterized by a predetermined minimum and maximum zone size and a predetermined minimum and maximum zone stamp length; wherein zones that are to be delta-compressed have a size greater than the predetermined minimum zone size and less than the predetermined maximum size and a stamp length greater than the predetermined minimum zone stamp length.