Methods and apparatus are described for formatting a compressed data packet. The methods and apparatus include identifying a first data string within a data packet that was previously stored at a first memory location in a compressor memory, and generating a first pointer that references the first memory location in the compressor memory. Further, these aspects optionally include identifying a second data string within the data packet that was not previously stored in the compressor memory. Additionally, these aspects include creating a compressed data packet by replacing the first data string with the first pointer and copying the second data string, and including an indicator corresponding to a number of pointers in the data packet.