A Linux Kernel Implementation of MANET IP Header Compression

The desire for both industry and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to converge on an all-IP infrastructure, fueled by the increased usage of mobile applications on smart phones and VoIP applications have driven research in maximizing bandwidth efficiency amidst a shrinking allocation of radio frequency (RF) spectrum. One method of providing increased bandwidth efficiency (especially with the desire to move to IPv6), is the use of IP header compression schemes like MANET IP Header Compression (MIPHC) to compress IP headers into small identifiers before sending packets to the link layer. MIPHC was designed as a shared-state IP header compression protocol and yields less compression than other protocols like RObust Header Compression (ROHC), but requires no state exchange. One key aspect of evaluating the applicability of MIPHC in military networks is a high fidelity implementation. In this paper, we present a Linux kernel implementation of MIPHC which includes a performance evaluation of the implementation in an emulated MANET network.