Survey of Header Compression Techniques

Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to the advancement of aeronautics and space science. The NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program Office plays a key part in helping NASA maintain this important role. The NASA STI Program Office is operated by Langley Research Center, the Lead Center for NASA's scientific and technical information. The NASA STI Program Office provides access to the NASA STI Database, the largest collection of aeronautical and space science STI in the world. The Program Office is also NASA's institutional mechanism for disseminating the results of its research and development activities. These results are published by NASA in the NASA STI Report Series, which includes the following report types: • TECHNICAL PUBLICATION. Reports of completed research or a major significant phase of research that present the results of NASA programs and include extensive data or theoretical analysis. Includes compilations of significant scientific and technical data and information deemed to be of continuing reference value. NASA's counterpart of peer-reviewed formal professional papers but has less stringent limitations on manuscript length and extent of graphic presentations. • TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM. Scientific and technical findings that are preliminary or of specialized interest, e.g., quick release reports, working papers, and bibliographies that contain minimal annotation. Does not contain extensive analysis. • CONTRACTOR REPORT. Scientific and technical findings by NASA-sponsored contractors and grantees. • TECHNICAL TRANSLATION. English-language translations of foreign scientific and technical material pertinent to NASA's mission. Specialized services that complement the STI Program Office's diverse offerings include creating custom thesauri, building customized data bases, organizing and publishing research results. .. even providing videos. Trade names or manufacturers' names are used in this report for identification only. This usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Summary This report provides a summary of several different header compression techniques. The different techniques included are: • Van Jacobson's header compression [RFC1144] • SCPS header compression [SCPS-TP, SCPS-NP] • Robust header compression [ROHC] • The header compression techniques in [RFC2507] and [RFC2508] The methodology for compression and error correction for these schemes are described in the remainder of this document. All of the header compression schemes support compression over simplex links, provided that the end receiver has some means of sending data back to the sender. However, if that return path does not exist, then neither Van Jacobson's nor SCPS can be …