Patent ID: 8509237

Claim:
An apparatus for reducing redundant network transmissions in a network, the apparatus comprising at least one compressing node and at least a first and second decompressing node along a transmission path from the at least one compressing node, packets from the at least one compressing node passing first through the first decompressing node and then to the second decompressing node, all nodes intercommunicating and spatially separated on the network; wherein the at least one compressing node compresses redundant packets and marks them for decompression at different ones of the first and second decompressing nodes to spread the computational task of decompressing redundant packets among the first and second decompressing nodes; wherein the first decompressing node receives packets marked for decompression by both the first and second decompressing nodes and selectively decompresses the received packets only when a given received packet is marked for decompression by the first decompressing node and performs that decompression before forwarding the given received packet to the second decompressing node.