byte[] serializeVariantPropertiesPattern(DerefMapVariantPropertiesPattern variantPropertiesPattern)
throws IOException {
final DataOutput dataOutput = new DataOutputImpl();
// total number of entries
dataOutput.writeInt(variantPropertiesPattern.pattern.size());
for (Map.Entry<String, String> patternEntry : variantPropertiesPattern.pattern.entrySet()) {
// name
final String name = patternEntry.getKey();
dataOutput.writeUTF(name);