Method and apparatus for handling out-of-sequence packets in header decompression

A method of operating a remote terminal which receives, over a link, packets including packets having headers which have been compressed and packets which are potentially out-of-order, the method comprising:

• (1) detecting non-receipt of packets anticipated in a flow of packets over the link;
• (2) storing, with respect to each non-receipt, a snapshot of header decompression context information existing at the non-receipt;
• and then,
• (3) upon header decompression failure for a subsequently received packet, determining if header decompression of the subsequently received packet can be achieved using one of plural stored snapshots.

A method of operating a remote terminal which receives, over a link, packets including packets having headers which have been compressed and packets which are potentially out-of-order, the method comprising:

• (1) detecting possible context damage attributable to missing or out-of-order packets in a flow of packets over the link;
• and thereafter:
• (2) storing packets which initially fail decompression;
• and then,
• (3) successfully using certain context information to reattempt header decompression of a packet received after detection of the context damage;
• and
• (4) reattempting header decompression of the stored packets using the certain context information.

A method of operating a telecommunications network comprising:

• sending from the network to a remote terminal, over an interface, packets including packets having headers which have been compressed and packets which are potentially out-of-order;
• detecting at the remote terminal a failure to decompress a compressed header;
• and in response to the failure,
• requesting from the network a resending of context information-bearing packets over the interface to the remote terminal.

A method of operating a telecommunications network comprising:

• sending from the network to a remote terminal, over an interface, packets including packets having headers which have been compressed and packets which are potentially out-of-order;
• detecting at the remote terminal a condition which gives rise to a failure to decompress a compressed header;
• and in response to the condition,
• requesting from the network a resending of context information-bearing packets over the interface to the remote terminal.

A method of operating a telecommunications network comprising:

• sending from the network to a remote terminal, over an interface, packets including packets having headers which have been compressed and packets which are potentially out-of-order;
• detecting a situation in which packets sent from the network to the remote terminal have a likelihood of being out-of-order;
• and in response thereto:
• allocating in, reusable memory, memory locations for storing a set of context information existing at times at which packet loss at least appears to occur by packets possibly being out-of-order;
• using the set of context information to reattempt header decompression of subsequently received packets that previously failed header decompression possibly by being out-of-order.