Evaluation of a generic header compression protocol

Header Compression is a widely used technique in wireless and satellite communications. The main drawback of this technique is to weaken the transmission against bit error or packet losses. Indeed, corruption or loss of an header can lead to a failure to decompress subsequent packets and then to a loss of connection. Consequently, parameters of the header compression system should be carefully designed. In this paper, we first review the main header compression standards for both unidirectional and bidirectional links. Then, we build a generic header compression model, encompassing parameters and techniques that are widely used in these protocols. Applying this model to specific contexts, we draw some lessons for the use of header compression.