some embodiments relate to a network comprising two rbridges connected by a link where the two rbridges are not the ingress and egress rbridge for said frames , wherein said rbridges automatically exchange information as to their support of hop - by - hop reversible frame aggregation , reversible header compression , and reversible data compression , and wherein if both rbridges support any or all of these features in the same fashion , one or more of said features are automatically applied to appropriate frames at the transmitting rbridge and removed at the receiving rbridge , increasing the throughput of the link .