Protocol compression with synchronized sequence numbers

• US 7,978,699 B1
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Issued: 07/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PICO Mobile Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: PicoMobile Networks, Inc. (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Lambert, Paul Aerick, Shetye, Ranjeet
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton; Dang T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kaur; Pamit
• Application Number:
  US11/764,794
• Time in Patent Office: 1,485 Days
• Field of Search: 370/392, 370/351, 370/474
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/35 Switches specially adapted for specific applications

Abstract

A system for transmitting data packets includes a sending node. The sending node includes means for forming the data packets using two or more communications protocols. A first protocol includes means to associate with a data load a first header having one or more fields. A second protocol includes means to associate with the data load a second header having one or more fields. The sending node includes compression means for removing one or more fields of the first header. A value of a removed field is predictable by reference to values of one or more fields of the second protocol. A predefined template is used to remove the one or more fields of the first header for compression and to replace the removed field for decompression. The predefined template is identified by a template number included in an added header.

Claims

1. A system for transmission of data packets from a sending node to a receiving node via a data packet network, the sending node comprising:

means for forming the data packets using two or more communications protocols, wherein;

a first communications protocol comprises means to associate with a data load a first protocol header having one or more protocol fields, and

a second communications protocol comprises means to associate with the data load a second protocol header having one or more protocol fields;

compression means for removing one or more of the protocol fields of the first protocol header, wherein a value of a removed protocol field is predictable by reference to values of one or more protocol fields of the second communications protocol; and

transmission means for transmitting the data load to the data packet network after operation of the first and second communications protocols and the compression means,

wherein the receiving node comprises;

template means for recognizing the protocol fields in the second protocol header; and

field prediction means for operating upon values of the one or more of the protocol fields of the second protocol header to determine the value of the removed protocol field.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the sending node transmits the data load via the data packet network to the receiving node and one or more recipient nodes comprising decompression means.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein transmissions from the sending node are via broadcast packets.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the second communications protocol includes an encapsulation security protocol (ESP), and wherein the second protocol header comprises a protocol identification identifying to the receiving node that a received packet is compressed by the sending node.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the second communications protocol includes a user datagram protocol (UDP), and wherein the second protocol header comprises a protocol identification identifying to the receiving node that a received packet is compressed by the sending node.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the removed protocol field includes at least one of a sequence number, a checksum, and a protocol field from a nested protocol header.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first communications protocol includes a user datagram protocol (UDP) and means for encapsulating UDP fields output by an encapsulating security protocol (ESP).

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second communications protocols include protocols from a group consisting of an encapsulation security protocol (ESP), a user datagram protocol (UDP), an Internet protocol (IP), and a real time protocol (RTP) defined by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second communications protocols operate under standards developed for Internet protocol (IP) multimedia subsystems (IMS) by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the compression means further comprise means to select the one or more of the protocol fields of the first protocol header for removal based upon negotiation via an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol.

11. A system for transmission of data packets from a sending node to a receiving node via a data packet network, the sending node comprising:

means for forming the data packets using two or more communications protocols, wherein;

a first communications protocol comprises means to associate with a data load a first protocol header having one or more protocol fields, and

a second communications protocol comprises means to associate with the data load a second protocol header having one or more protocol fields;

compression means for removing one or more of the protocol fields of the first protocol header, wherein a value of a removed protocol field is predictable by reference to values of one or more protocol fields of the second communications protocol; and

transmission means for transmitting the data load to the data packet network after operation of the first and second communications protocols and the compression means,

wherein a predefined template is used to remove the one or more of the protocol fields of the first protocol header for compression and to replace the removed protocol field for decompression, and wherein the predefined template is identified by a template number included in an added protocol header.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the sending node further comprises a microprocessor and a control program for operating the first and second communications protocols and the compression means.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein after transmission of the data load to the data packet network, the data load is transmitted to the receiving node.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the receiving node comprises a microprocessor and a control program for operating decompression means for receiving the data packets from the sending node.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the removed protocol field includes a sequence number.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the removed protocol field includes a checksum.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the first communications protocol includes a user datagram protocol (UDP) and means for encapsulating UDP fields output by an encapsulating security protocol (ESP).

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the first and second communications protocols include protocols from a group consisting of an encapsulation security protocol (ESP), a user datagram protocol (UDP), an Internet protocol (IP), and a real time protocol (RTP) defined by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the first and second communications protocols operate under standards developed for Internet protocol (IP) multimedia subsystems (IMS) by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP).

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the compression means further comprise means to select the one or more of the protocol fields of the first protocol header for removal based upon negotiation via an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol.

21. The system of claim 11, wherein the receiving node comprises:

template means for recognizing the protocol fields in the second protocol header; and

field prediction means for operating upon values of the one or more of the protocol fields of the second protocol header to determine the value of the removed protocol field.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the sending node transmits the data load via the data packet network to the receiving node and one or more recipient nodes comprising decompression means.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein transmissions from the sending node are via broadcast packets.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the second communications protocol includes an encapsulation security protocol (ESP), and wherein the second protocol header comprises a protocol identification identifying to the receiving node that a received packet is compressed by the sending node.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the second communications protocol includes a user datagram protocol (UDP), and wherein the second protocol header comprises a protocol identification identifying to the receiving node that a received packet is compressed by the sending node.

26. The system of claim 11, wherein the predefined template is based upon relating a sequence number of a higher-level protocol field to a sequence number of a lower-level protocol field, wherein the higher-level protocol field is nested in the lower-level protocol field.

27. The system of claim 11, wherein the removed protocol field includes a protocol field from a nested protocol header, and wherein the nested protocol header is a protocol header in which a higher-level protocol field is nested in a lower-level protocol field.