Soft State Header Compression for Wireless Networks

Low-speed wireless is becoming a popular way to connect mobile computers to the Internet and other networks. Users will desire the same services on low speed links as they already have on higher speed networks. Since bandwidth will probably always be a limitation on wide area wireless links, protocol mechanisms need to be developed to use the available bandwidth on low speed networks efficiently. In the face of growing address sizes, such as those in IPv6, we offer a header compression scheme that enables efficient use of bandwidth when packets are small. The scheme uses soft state, works over simplex links, supports multicast transmission for real time applications, and besides providing more usable bandwidth on wireless links, allows better utilization of gateways and servers attached to wireless networks. 1 Introduction In the future, many end systems will be attached to the global Internet over relatively low-speed wireless links. With the advent of the Mbone as well as some com..