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

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Header suppression is used to transport packets more efficiently in a packet network.
Header suppression allows more voice calls to be established on a particular physical media without the need for explicit compression.
This increases call density with relatively low software overhead.
Header suppression is implemented on a per link bases within a network and is a layer 2 service offered for transporting layer 3 and layer 4 protocols.
Header suppression is applied to any point-to-point or multipoint-to-point network and is particularly useful in transmitting Voice Over IP (VoIP) packets in a cable network.
A first packet processing node transmits packets having multiple packet headers and a packet payload.
The first packet processing node while in a header suppression mode suppresses transmission of one or more of the packet headers.
A second packet processing node receives the packets from the first packet processing node over a network medium.
The second packet processing node includes memory that contains the packet headers suppressed by the first packet processing node and appends the stored headers to the suppressed header packets before sending the packets to a destination endpoint.
In one example, one of the first and second packet processing nodes comprises a cable modem and the other packet processing node comprises a cable modem termination system (headend).
A protocol transmits a header suppression notice between the cable modem and the cable modem termination system.
Information is then transmitted identifying the headers to be suppressed.
The suppressed header information is stored and then appended to suppressed packets.
The appended packets are then routed to another endpoint either on the same cable modem network or on a packet-switched network.
While described in a cable modem network environment, header suppression is applicable between any two processing devices that would have the ability to suppress all or portions of one or more packet headers