Forward compatibility guaranteed data compression and decompression method and apparatus thereof

A data compression apparatus comprising:

• a compression unit, executed by a processor, which generates compressed data by applying a compression algorithm to data to be compressed;
• and
• a compressed file generating unit, executed by the processor, which generates a compressed file comprising the compressed data, a header including information on the compressed data, and an extension field,
• wherein the extension field includes one or more extension field units and an extension field terminating code indicating an end of a region capable of including the one or more extension field units, each of the header and the one or more extension field units starts with a data identification code having the same number of bytes, and an extension field unit of the one or more extension field units further includes its own length data separated by a predetermined number of bytes from its own data identification code,
• wherein the header is divided into a first header, a second header and a third header according to first included information, and the extension field is divided into a first extension field, a second extension field, a third extension field and a fourth extension field according to second included information, and wherein the first extension field is located after the first header, the second extension field is located after the second header, the third extension field is located after the third header, and the fourth extension field is located at an end of the compressed file, and
• wherein the compressed file has a configuration in which the first header enabling identification of a compression format, the first extension field including information associated with the first header, the second header including information on an original file included in the compressed file, the second extension field including information associated with the second header, the third header including information on each block in the original file, the third extension field including information associated with the third header, the compressed data of a block corresponding to the third header, and the fourth extension field indicating the end of the compressed file are sequentially located.

A compressed data decompression apparatus comprising:

• a compressed file parsing unit, executed by a processor, which parses a compressed file comprising compressed data, a header including information on the compressed data and an extension field to extract the compressed data;
• and
• an original file generating unit, executed by the processor, which decompresses the compressed data to generate an original file,
• wherein the extension field includes one or more extension field units and an extension field terminating code indicating an end of a region capable of including the one or more extension field units, each of the header and the one or more extension field units starts with a data identification code having the same number of bytes, and an extension field unit of the one or more extension field units further includes its own length data separated by a predetermined number of bytes from its own data identification code,
• wherein if the data identification code of the extension field unit is not defined while the parsing is carried out based on the data identification code, the compressed file parsing unit skips the extension field unit using the length data without processing the extension field unit, and
• wherein the header is divided into multiple headers according to first included information, and the extension field is divided into multiple extension fields according to second included information, and wherein the compressed file has a configuration in which the multiple headers, the multiple extension fields, and the compressed data are located by predefined sequence for supporting minimum decompression regardless of a version of compressed file format.

A compressed data decompression method comprising:

• parsing, by a processor, a compressed file comprising compressed data, a header including information on the compressed data, and an extension field to extract the compressed data;
• and
• decompressing, by the compressed data to generate an original file,
• wherein the extension field includes one or more extension field units and an extension field terminating code indicating an end of a region capable of including the one or more extension field units, each of the header and the one or more extension field units starts with a data identification code having the same number of bytes, and an extension field unit of the one or more extension field units further includes its own length data separated by a predetermined number of bytes from its own data identification code,
• wherein said parsing the compressed file to extract the compressed data includes, if the data identification code of the extension field unit is not defined while the parsing is carried out based on the data identification code, skipping the extension field unit using the length data without processing the extension field unit, and
• wherein the header is divided into multiple headers according to first included information, and the extension field is divided into multiple extension fields according to second included information, and wherein the compressed file has a configuration in which the multiple headers, the multiple extension fields, and the compressed data are located by predefined sequence for supporting minimum decompression regardless of a version of compressed file format.

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program executed by a processor, the program comprising:

• a function of parsing a compressed file including compressed data, a header having information on the compressed data and an extension field to extract the compressed data, and a function of decompressing the compressed data to generate an original file,
• wherein the extension field includes one or more extension field units and an extension field terminating code indicating an end of a region capable of including the one or more extension field units, each of the header and the one or more extension field units starts with a data identification code having the same number of bytes, and an extension field unit of the one or more extension field units further includes its own length data separated by a predetermined number of bytes from its own data identification code,
• wherein the function of parsing the compressed file to extract the compressed data further includes, if the data identification code of the extension field unit is not defined while the parsing is carried out based on the data identification code, a function of skipping the extension field unit using the length data without processing the extension field unit, and
• wherein the header is divided into multiple headers according to first included information, and the extension field is divided into multiple extension fields according to second included information, and wherein the compressed file has a configuration in which the multiple headers, the multiple extension fields, and the compressed data are located by predefined sequence for supporting minimum decompression regardless of a version of compressed file format.