Method and system for negotiating compression techniques to be utilized in packet data communications

1. A method for negotiating a compression technique while signaling is occurring in a communications network, the method comprising:

sending a message with a compression negotiation indicator,

receiving a response to the message,

determining if the response contains an error code,

if the message contains the error code, then continuing signaling without using compression techniques,

if the message does not contain the error code, then negotiating a compression technique to determine a negotiated compression technique and continuing signaling with the negotiated compression technique.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the negotiating further comprises determining if a compression negotiation was successful,

if the compression negotiation was successful, then continuing signaling using the negotiated compression technique, and

if the compression negotiation was not successful, then continuing signaling without using the compression technique.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the determining further comprises:

sending an indicator of a preferred compression technique,

receiving an indicator of a received compression technique,

determining if the received compression technique is the preferred compression technique,

if the received compression technique is the preferred compression, then setting the negotiated compression technique to be the preferred compression and defining the compression negotiation to be successful,

if the compression technique is not the preferred compression technique, then determining if the received compression technique is available,

if the received compression technique is available, then setting the negotiated compression technique to be the received compression technique and defining the compression negotiation to be successful, and

if the received compression technique is not available, then defining the compression negotiation to be unsuccessful.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending a message further comprises sending an ASCII message coupled to a binary header.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the ASCII message is a Session Initiation Protocol message.

6. A network system, comprising:

a first node of the network system,

a second node of the network system,

a memory device coupled to the second node, wherein the memory device includes instructions for:

sending a message with a compression negotiation indicator,

receiving a response to the message,

determining if the response contains an error code,

if the message contains the error code, then continuing signaling without using compression techniques,

if the message does not contain the error code, then negotiating a compression technique to determining a negotiated compression technique and continuing signaling with the negotiated compression technique.

7. The network system of claim 6 wherein the negotiating instructions further comprises instructions for:

determining if a compression negotiation was successful,

if the compression negotiation was successful, then continuing signaling using the negotiated compression technique, and

if the compression negotiation was not successful, then continuing signaling without using the compression technique.

8. The network system of claim 7 wherein the determining instructions further comprises instructions for:

sending an indicator of a preferred compression technique,

receiving an indicator of a received compression technique,

determining if the received compression technique is the preferred compression technique,

if the received compression technique is the preferred compression, then setting the negotiated compression technique to be the preferred compression and defining the compression negotiation to be successful,

if the compression technique is not the preferred compression technique, then determining if the received compression technique is available,

if the received compression technique is available, then setting the negotiated compression technique to be the received compression technique and defining the compression negotiation to be successful, and

if the received compression technique is not available, then defining the compression negotiation to be unsuccessful.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein the second node is a proxy server.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the network uses a session initiation protocol.

11. The system of claim 6 wherein the first node is a communications device.

12. The system of claim 6 wherein the message and the response conform to a common protocol for facilitating negotiation of the compression technique.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the common protocol contains directives selected from the group consisting of initiating a new session, session acceptance, session reset, session closed, not supported, and check-sum failure.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the common protocol contains indications of a supported compression technique.

15. A method for negotiating a compression technique during call signaling between two nodes of a Session Initiation Protocol network, the method comprising: receiving from a first node a message containing a session key and a function code, wherein the function code represents a function selected from the group consisting of initiating a new session, session acceptance, session reset, session closed, not supported, check-sum failure, and

sending a response to the first node indicating acceptance of the session key.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the function code further comprises a codec which represents a compression technique.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the compression technique is selected from a predetermined group, including no compression.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the message is sent in an acknowledgement mode.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the message is sent in an un-acknowledgement node.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein the message is part of a SIP signaling message.