	US 12,261,769 B2
	Source route compression
Pranjal Kumar Dutta, Sunnyvale, CA (US)
Assigned to Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, Espoo (FI)
Filed by Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, Espoo (FI)
Filed on Jul. 20, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/380,828.
Prior Publication US 2023/0028147 A1, Jan. 26, 2023
Int. Cl. H04L 45/00 (2022.01); H04L 45/02 (2022.01); H04L 45/74 (2022.01)

CPC H04L 45/34 (2013.01)

11 Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

determine, for a path including a set of network elements having a respective set of network element identifiers associated therewith, a plurality of subsets of network elements of the path;

determine, for each of the plurality of subsets of network elements, a respective common prefix shared by the respective network element identifiers of respective ones of the network elements in the respective subset of network elements;

determine, for each of the plurality of subsets of network elements, a respective set of offset values associated with the respective ones of the network elements in the respective subset of network elements and configured to be combined with the respective common prefix for the respective subset of network elements to recover the respective network element identifiers of the respective ones of the network elements in the respective subset of network elements;

generate a set of source route blocks including, for each of the plurality of subsets of network elements, a respective source route block including the respective common prefix for the respective subset of network elements, a respective offset size value indicative of a size of each of the offset values in the respective set of offset values for the respective subset of network elements, and the respective set of offset values for the respective subset of network elements; and

send, toward a next hop of the path, a source routed packet including a header and a payload, wherein the header includes the set of source route blocks.