Scalable and Robust End-to-End Header Compression Techniques for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Wireless ad hoc networks are gaining increasing popularity because of their ease of deployment. They can be installed without the need of fixed infrastructure or centralized administration. In this type of networks, bandwidth is limited due to propertiesof the physical medium.By utilizing end-to-end header compression, the bandwidth that is consumed by multimedia flows could be reduced significantly. Thus, End-to-end header compression provides a mechanism for increasing the utilization and efficiency of wireless ad hocnetworks.Existing header compression algorithms are targeted towards directly connected nodes (e.g., base station to mobile terminal). Architecture Technology Corporation will leverage its extensive expertise in wireless network technology to develop and designscalable and robust techniques that will enable end-to-end compression over wireless ad hoc networks. The end product of this effort is a set of end-to-end header compression algorithms, which can be plugged into existing routing algorithms (wireless and wireline). The resulting algorithms would increase the efficiency and utilization of wireless andwireline networks. Thus reducing the cost of implementing and deploying commercial networks.