Patent ID: 8804765

Claim:
A method of operating a telecommunications network comprising: performing, at a compressor of a telecommunications node or terminal, a compression operation with respect to packet header information to form compressed packet headers, the compression operation performed by the compressor comprising: compressing a header in a first packet destined to be transmitted over a wireless link in accordance with a first format, wherein the first format is associated with a first number of sequence number bits, and wherein the compressed header of the first packet includes the first number of sequence number bits; deciding, based on a characteristic of the wireless link, whether to adjust a packet format used by the compressor and, in response to deciding to adjust the first packet format: determining an enhancement factor; determining a second number of sequence number bits based on the first number of sequence number bits and the enhancement factor; signaling information to a decompressor indicating the enhancement factor; and compressing a header in a second packet, wherein a sequence number of the compressed header of the second packet includes the second number of compressed bits; transmitting the packets from the compressor to the decompressor over the wireless link, the packets being susceptible to reordering during transmission over the wireless link, the decompressor being at another telecommunications node or terminal; and performing a decompression operation at the decompressor, wherein the dynamically adjusting of the tradeoff occurs during transmission of a flow of header-compressed packets including the first packet and the second packet over the wireless link from the compressor which performs the compression operation to the decompressor which performs the decompression operation.