IP Payload Compression Protocol (IPComp)
RFC 3173
| Document | Type |
RFC - Proposed Standard
(September 2001; No errata)
Obsoletes RFC 2393
Was draft-shacham-ippcp-rfc2393bis (individual)
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|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
| Stream | Legacy | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
| Stream | Legacy state | (None) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 3173 (Proposed Standard) | |
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | (None) | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
Network Working Group A. Shacham
Request for Comments: 3173 Juniper
Obsoletes: 2393 B. Monsour
Category: Standards Track Consultant
R. Pereira
Cisco
M. Thomas
Consultant
September 2001
IP Payload Compression Protocol (IPComp)
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document describes a protocol intended to provide lossless
compression for Internet Protocol datagrams in an Internet
environment.
1. Introduction
IP payload compression is a protocol to reduce the size of IP
datagrams. This protocol will increase the overall communication
performance between a pair of communicating hosts/gateways ("nodes")
by compressing the datagrams, provided the nodes have sufficient
computation power, through either CPU capacity or a compression
coprocessor, and the communication is over slow or congested links.
IP payload compression is especially useful when encryption is
applied to IP datagrams. Encrypting the IP datagram causes the data
to be random in nature, rendering compression at lower protocol
layers (e.g., PPP Compression Control Protocol [RFC1962])
ineffective. If both compression and encryption are required,
compression must be applied before encryption.
Shacham, et al. Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 3173 IP Payload Compression Protocol September 2001
This document defines the IP payload compression protocol (IPComp),
the IPComp packet structure, the IPComp Association (IPCA), and
several methods to negotiate the IPCA.
Other documents shall specify how a specific compression algorithm
can be used with the IP payload compression protocol. Such
algorithms are beyond the scope of this document.
1.1. Specification of Requirements
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
2. Compression Process
The compression processing of IP datagrams has two phases:
compressing of outbound IP datagrams ("compression") and
decompressing of inbound datagrams ("decompression"). The
compression processing MUST be lossless, ensuring that the IP
datagram, after being compressed and decompressed, is identical to
the original IP datagram.
Each IP datagram is compressed and decompressed by itself without any
relation to other datagrams ("stateless compression"), as IP
datagrams may arrive out of order or not arrive at all. Each
compressed IP datagram encapsulates a single IP payload.
Processing of inbound IP datagrams MUST support both compressed and
non-compressed IP datagrams, in order to meet the non-expansion
policy requirements, as defined in section 2.2.
The compression of outbound IP datagrams MUST be done before any IP
security processing, such as encryption and authentication, and
before any fragmentation of the IP datagram. In addition, in IP
version 6 [RFC2460], the compression of outbound IP datagrams MUST be
done before the addition of either a Hop-by-Hop Options header or a
Routing Header, since both carry information that must be examined
and processed by possibly every node along a packet's delivery path,
and therefore MUST be sent in the original form.
Similarly, the decompression of inbound IP datagrams MUST be done
after the reassembly of the IP datagrams, and after the completion of
all IP security processing, such as authentication and decryption.
Shacham, et al. Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 3173 IP Payload Compression Protocol September 2001
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