Patent ID: 7554981

Claim:
A method performed by a router, the method comprising determining a first chain location and first chain length of a first chain of zero bytes removed from a first compressed IPv6 address based on compression information of the first compressed IPv6 address, the first compressed IPv6 address having a first number of bytes, including a first number of pre-chain location bytes and a first number of post-chain location bytes; determining a second chain location and second chain length of a second chain of zero bytes removed from a second compressed IPv6 address based on compression information of the second compressed IPv6 address, the second compressed IPv6 address having a second number of bytes, including a second number of pre-chain location bytes and a second number of post-chain location bytes; comparing the compression information of the first compressed IPv6 address to the compression information of the second compressed IPv6 address; when the compression information of the first compressed IPv6 address and the compression information of the second compressed IPv6 address are equal, comparing the first number of bytes to corresponding ones of the second number of bytes, and producing a result; when the compression information of the first compressed IPv6 address and the compression information of the second compressed IPv6 address are not equal—comparing the first pre-chain location bytes to corresponding ones of the second pre-chain location bytes, and producing the result when at least one pair of such pre-chain corresponding bytes is different; when no result is produced, comparing the first chain location to the second chain location, and producing the result when the first chain location and the second chain location are not equal; when no result is produced, comparing the first chain length to the second chain length, and producing the result.