Patent ID: 8392616

Claim:
A method for transmitting a header-compressed packet based on a retransmission mechanism, comprising: obtaining, by a header compressor of a sending device, feedback information of a header-compressed packet in a transmission process; and determining a state of the header compressor according to the feedback information, compressing a header for a packet according to the state of the header compressor, and sending the packet to a decompressor of a receiving device; wherein determining the state of the header compressor according to the feedback information comprises: obtaining, by the header compressor, header-compressed packets transmitted correctly and/or unsuccessfully, according to the feedback information; and determining order of header-compressed packets received correctly by the decompressor, according to the header-compressed packets transmitted correctly and/or unsuccessfully; determining, by the header compressor, whether the decompressor can decompress a subsequent header-compressed packet, according to the order of the header-compressed packets received by the decompressor correctly and transmission state information that is of the header-compressed packets and is stored by the header compressor; if the decompressor can decompress the subsequent header-compressed packet, keeping, by the header compressor, an existing compression state unchanged or shifting a compression state from an incomplete compression state to a complete compression state; otherwise, shifting a compression state from a complete compression state to an incomplete compression state; and after the shifting the compression state from the complete compression state to the incomplete compression state: instructing, by the header compressor, the sender of the sending device that is based on the retransmission mechanism to discard a header-compressed packet in a retransmission buffer; or, instructing the sender of the sending device that is based on the retransmission mechanism to add header compression context information into a header-compressed packet in a retransmission buffer and then send the packet to the receiver of the receiving device that is based on the retransmission mechanism.