Method and apparatus for supporting header suppression and multiple microflows in a network

A method for transmitting packets having multiple packet headers and a packet payload, comprising:

• identifying one or more of the packet headers for header suppression;
• pre-sending information from the identified packet headers to a packet processing node;
• suppressing transmission of the identified packet headers when transmitting the packets to the packet processing node;
• and
• providing an index with the suppressed header packets that enables the packet processing node to locate and append the pre-sent packet header information to the suppressed header packets.

A packet processing device that transmits packets having packet headers and a packet payload, the packet processing device:

• identifying at least one of the packet headers for header suppression;
• pre-sending packet header information from the identified packet headers to another packet processing device;
• suppressing transmission of the identified packet headers when transmitting the packets to the other packet processing device;
• and
• providing an index with the suppressed header packets that associates the pre-sent packet header information with the suppressed header packets.

A method for processing packets having multiple packet headers and a packet payload, comprising:

• receiving one or more packets from a packet processing node identified for packet header suppression;
• storing the additional packet headers for the identified packets;
• receiving packets from the packet processing node identified as having suppressed packet headers;
• appending the stored packet headers to the identified additional packets;
• and
• forwarding the additional packets to an endpoint according to the appended packet headers.

A packet processing device for processing packets having multiple packet headers and a packet payload, the packet processing device:

• receiving one or more packet headers from a packet processing node;
• storing the packet headers;
• receiving packets from the packet processing node having suppressed packet headers;
• receiving an index that identifies the stored packet headers with the received packets;
• appending the identified packet headers to the received packets;
• and
• forwarding the packets to an endpoint according to the appended packet headers.

A method for transmitting packets having multiple packet headers and a packet payload, comprising:

• identifying one or more of the packet headers for header suppression;
• pre-sending information from the identified packet headers to a packet processing node;
• suppressing transmission of the identified packet headers when transmitting the packets to the packet processing node;
• and
• providing an identifier with the suppressed header packets that associates the pre-sent packet header information with the suppressed header packets.