Patent ID: 8412848

Claim:
A method for transmission 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 zone stamp identifying the zone, the zone stamp includes a sequence of contiguous characters representing of at least a portion of data in the zone, wherein the order of characters in the zone stamp corresponds to the order of data in the zone, wherein said zone stamp is configured to have a length between a predetermined minimum zone stamp length and a predetermined maximum zone stamp length; comparing the zone stamp with another zone stamp of another zone in any data stream received; determining whether the zone is substantially similar to another zone by detecting that the zone stamp is substantially similar to another 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; 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.