Patent ID: 7885294

Claim:
A method comprising: announcing, in a first routing protocol packet transmitted from a first customer edge router to at least a second customer edge router in a network, an ability to compress payloads of packets; receiving compression information from the second customer edge router in a second routing protocol packet, the compression information identifying a compression technique supported by the second customer edge router, wherein the first and second routing protocol packets are BGP (border gateway protocol) packets; determining a matched compression technique by determining whether the compression technique identified in the compression information matches any compression technique supported by the first customer edge router; identifying, in a routing table at the first customer edge router, the matched compression technique as applicable to routes that include the second customer edge router; and flagging, based on the routes identified in the routing table, packets transmitted from the first customer edge router to the second customer edge router for compression of payloads, but not headers, of the packets in accordance with the matched compression technique.