An exemplary apparatus includes a processor configured to compress an A11 message into a compressed message. The processor assigns a first value to a first portion of a first octet of the compressed message based on a message type field of the A11 message. The first portion may be three bits in length. The processor may also assign a second value to a second portion of the first octet of the compressed message based on a code field, a flags field and a status field of the A11 message. The second value may correspond to a set of values for the code, flags and status fields and may be five bits long. Third and fourth values are assigned to portions of a second octet of the compressed message based on an information element identifier and other field/s respectively of the A11 message so as to uniquely identify an information element.