byte status = 0;
status = TransportStatus.setRequest(status);
BytesStreamOutput bStream = new BytesStreamOutput();
bStream.skip(NettyHeader.HEADER_SIZE);
StreamOutput stream = bStream;
stream = new HandlesStreamOutput(stream);
// we pick the smallest of the 2, to support both backward and forward compatibility
// note, this is the only place we need to do this, since from here on, we use the serialized version