IP header and signalling compression for 3G systems

IP header compression techniques have evolved to meet the challenges of cellular networks. The scope has also broadened. Solutions are being developed for voice traffic transport, SIP and protocols such as TCP, which covers the major traffic volumes. All of these standards are currently under development in accordance with the working group charter and IETT process. With these solutions, 2.5G and 3G networks will be a ubiquitous way of obtaining IP connectivity, even for multimedia applications. The integration of these techniques into the protocol architecture is being done within other standards activities, for example 3GPP. Many aspects of compression schemes (such as BNF grammars for specific content) have been left as implementation decisions, reflecting a principle of the ROHC group: to enable the deployment of sophisticated compression without standardising every aspect of their use.