RFC 4996
RObust Header Compression (ROHC): A Profile for TCP/IP (ROHC-TCP)
Network Working Group G. Pelletier Request for Comments: 4996 K. Sandlund Category: Standards Track Ericsson L-E. Jonsson M. West Siemens/Roke Manor July 2007 RObust Header Compression (ROHC): A Profile for TCP/IP (ROHC-TCP) 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 IETF Trust (2007).Abstract
This document specifies a ROHC (Robust Header Compression) profile for compression of TCP/IP packets. The profile, called ROHC-TCP, provides efficient and robust compression of TCP headers, including frequently used TCP options such as SACK (Selective Acknowledgments) and Timestamps. ROHC-TCP works well when used over links with significant error rates and long round-trip times. For many bandwidth-limited links where header compression is essential, such characteristics are common.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.1. Existing TCP/IP Header Compression Schemes . . . . . . . . 5 3.2. Classification of TCP/IP Header Fields . . . . . . . . . . 6 4. Overview of the TCP/IP Profile (Informative) . . . . . . . . . 8 4.1. General Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.2. Compressor and Decompressor Interactions . . . . . . . . . 8 4.2.1. Compressor Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.2.2. Decompressor Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.3. Packet Formats and Encoding Methods . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.3.1. Compressing TCP Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.3.2. Compressing Extension Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.4. Expected Compression Ratios with ROHC-TCP . . . . . . . . 10 5. Compressor and Decompressor Logic (Normative) . . . . . . . . 11 5.1. Context Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.2. Compressor Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.2.1. Compression Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.2.2. Feedback Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 5.2.3. Context Replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 5.3. Decompressor Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 5.3.1. Decompressor States and Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 5.3.2. Feedback Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 5.3.3. Context Replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 6. Encodings in ROHC-TCP (Normative) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 6.1. Control Fields in ROHC-TCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 6.1.1. Master Sequence Number (MSN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 6.1.2. IP-ID Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 6.1.3. Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) . . . . . . . . 20 6.2. Compressed Header Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 6.3. Compressing TCP Options with List Compression . . . . . . 23 6.3.1. List Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 6.3.2. Table-Based Item Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 6.3.3. Encoding of Compressed Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 6.3.4. Item Table Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 6.3.5. Compressed Lists in Dynamic Chain . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.3.6. Irregular Chain Items for TCP Options . . . . . . . . 28 6.3.7. Replication of TCP Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.4. Profile-Specific Encoding Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6.4.1. inferred_ip_v4_header_checksum . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6.4.2. inferred_mine_header_checksum . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 6.4.3. inferred_ip_v4_length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 6.4.4. inferred_ip_v6_length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 6.4.5. inferred_offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 6.4.6. baseheader_extension_headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 6.4.7. baseheader_outer_headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.4.8. Scaled Encoding of Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.5. Encoding Methods With External Parameters . . . . . . . . 34
7. Packet Types (Normative) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7.1. Initialization and Refresh (IR) Packets . . . . . . . . . 36
7.2. Context Replication (IR-CR) Packets . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.3. Compressed (CO) Packets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
8. Header Formats (Normative) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
8.1. Design Rationale for Compressed Base Headers . . . . . . . 42
8.2. Formal Definition of Header Formats . . . . . . . . . . . 45
8.3. Feedback Formats and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.3.1. Feedback Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.3.2. Feedback Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
10. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
11. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
1. Introduction
There are several reasons to perform header compression on low- or
medium-speed links for TCP/IP traffic, and these have already been
discussed in [RFC2507]. Additional considerations that make
robustness an important objective for a TCP [RFC0793] compression
scheme are introduced in [RFC4163]. Finally, existing TCP/IP header
compression schemes ([RFC1144], [RFC2507]) are limited in their
handling of the TCP options field and cannot compress the headers of
handshaking packets (SYNs and FINs).
It is thus desirable for a header compression scheme to be able to
handle loss on the link between the compression and decompression
points as well as loss before the compression point. The header
compression scheme also needs to consider how to efficiently compress
short-lived TCP transfers and TCP options, such as SACK ([RFC2018],
[RFC2883]) and Timestamps ([RFC1323]).
The ROHC WG has developed a header compression framework on top of
which various profiles can be defined for different protocol sets, or
for different compression strategies. This document defines a TCP/IP
compression profile for the ROHC framework [RFC4995], compliant with
the requirements listed in [RFC4163].
Specifically, it describes a header compression scheme for TCP/IP
header compression (ROHC-TCP) that is robust against packet loss and
that offers enhanced capabilities, in particular for the compression
of header fields including TCP options. The profile identifier for
TCP/IP compression is 0x0006.
2. Terminology
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 [RFC2119]. This document reuses some of the terminology found in [RFC4995]. In addition, this document uses or defines the following terms: Base context The base context is a context that has been validated by both the compressor and the decompressor. A base context can be used as the reference when building a new context using replication. Base Context Identifier (Base CID) The Base CID is the CID that identifies the base context, from which information needed for context replication can be extracted. Base header A compressed representation of the innermost IP and TCP headers of the uncompressed packet. Chaining of items A chain groups fields based on similar characteristics. ROHC-TCP defines chain items for static, dynamic, replicable, or irregular fields. Chaining is done by appending an item for each header e.g., to the chain in their order of appearance in the uncompressed packet. Chaining is useful to construct compressed headers from an arbitrary number of any of the protocol headers for which ROHC-TCP defines a compressed format. Context Replication (CR) Context replication is the mechanism that establishes and initializes a new context based on another existing valid context (a base context). This mechanism is introduced to reduce the overhead of the context establishment procedure, and is especially useful for compression of multiple short-lived TCP connections that may be occurring simultaneously or near-simultaneously.
ROHC-TCP packet types
ROHC-TCP uses three different packet types: the Initialization and
Refresh (IR) packet type, the Context Replication (IR-CR) packet
type, and the Compressed packet (CO) type.
Short-lived TCP transfer
Short-lived TCP transfers refer to TCP connections transmitting
only small amounts of packets for each single connection.
3. Background
This section provides some background information on TCP/IP header
compression. The fundamentals of general header compression can be
found in [RFC4995]. In the following subsections, two existing
TCP/IP header compression schemes are first described along with a
discussion of their limitations, followed by the classification of
TCP/IP header fields. Finally, some of the characteristics of
short-lived TCP transfers are summarized.
A behavior analysis of TCP/IP header fields is found in [RFC4413].
3.1. Existing TCP/IP Header Compression Schemes
Compressed TCP (CTCP) and IP Header Compression (IPHC) are two
different schemes that may be used to compress TCP/IP headers. Both
schemes transmit only the differences from the previous header in
order to reduce the size of the TCP/IP header.
The CTCP [RFC1144] compressor detects transport-level retransmissions
and sends a header that updates the context completely when they
occur. While CTCP works well over reliable links, it is vulnerable
when used over less reliable links as even a single packet loss
results in loss of synchronization between the compressor and the
decompressor. This in turn leads to the TCP receiver discarding all
remaining packets in the current window because of a checksum error.
This effectively prevents the TCP fast retransmit algorithm [RFC2581]
from being triggered. In such a case, the compressor must wait until
TCP times out and retransmits a packet to resynchronize.
To reduce the errors due to the inconsistent contexts between
compressor and decompressor when compressing TCP, IPHC [RFC2507]
improves somewhat on CTCP by augmenting the repair mechanism of CTCP
with a local repair mechanism called TWICE and with a link-layer
mechanism based on negative acknowledgments to request a header that
updates the context.
The TWICE algorithm assumes that only the Sequence Number field of TCP segments is changing with the deltas between consecutive packets being constant in most cases. This assumption is however not always true, especially when TCP Timestamps and SACK options are used. The full header request mechanism requires a feedback channel that may be unavailable in some circumstances. This channel is used to explicitly request that the next packet be sent with an uncompressed header to allow resynchronization without waiting for a TCP timeout. In addition, this mechanism does not perform well on links with long round-trip times. Both CTCP and IPHC are also limited in their handling of the TCP options field. For IPHC, any change in the options field (caused by Timestamps or SACK, for example) renders the entire field uncompressible, while for CTCP, such a change in the options field effectively disables TCP/IP header compression altogether. Finally, existing TCP/IP compression schemes do not compress the headers of handshaking packets (SYNs and FINs). Compressing these packets may greatly improve the overall header compression ratio for the cases where many short-lived TCP connections share the same channel.3.2. Classification of TCP/IP Header Fields
Header compression is possible due to the fact that there is much redundancy between header field values within packets, especially between consecutive packets. To utilize these properties for TCP/IP header compression, it is important to understand the change patterns of the various header fields. All fields of the TCP/IP packet header have been classified in detail in [RFC4413]. The main conclusion is that most of the header fields can easily be compressed away since they seldom or never change. The following fields do however require more sophisticated mechanisms: - IPv4 Identification (16 bits) - IP-ID - TCP Sequence Number (32 bits) - SN - TCP Acknowledgment Number (32 bits) - TCP Reserved ( 4 bits) - TCP ECN flags ( 2 bits) - ECN - TCP Window (16 bits)
- TCP Options
o Maximum Segment Size (32 bits) - MSS
o Window Scale (24 bits) - WSCALE
o SACK Permitted (16 bits)
o TCP SACK (80, 144, 208, or 272 bits) - SACK
o TCP Timestamp (80 bits) - TS
The assignment of IP-ID values can be done in various ways, usually
one of sequential, sequential jump, or random, as described in
Section 4.1.3 of [RFC4413]. Some IPv4 stacks do use a sequential
assignment when generating IP-ID values but do not transmit the
contents of this field in network byte order; instead, it is sent
with the two octets reversed. In this case, the compressor can
compress the IP-ID field after swapping the bytes. Consequently, the
decompressor also swaps the bytes of the IP-ID after decompression to
regenerate the original IP-ID. With respect to TCP compression, the
analysis in [RFC4413] reveals that there is no obvious candidate
among the TCP fields suitable to infer the IP-ID.
The change pattern of several TCP fields (Sequence Number,
Acknowledgment Number, Window, etc.) is very hard to predict. Of
particular importance to a TCP/IP header compression scheme is the
understanding of the sequence and acknowledgment numbers [RFC4413].
Specifically, the TCP Sequence Number can be anywhere within a range
defined by the TCP Window at any point on the path (i.e., wherever a
compressor might be deployed). Missing packets or retransmissions
can cause the TCP Sequence Number to fluctuate within the limits of
this window. The TCP Window also bounds the jumps in acknowledgment
number.
Another important behavior of the TCP/IP header is the dependency
between the sequence number and the acknowledgment number. TCP
connections can be either near-symmetrical or show a strong
asymmetrical bias with respect to the data traffic. In the latter
case, the TCP connections mainly have one-way traffic (Web browsing
and file downloading, for example). This means that on the forward
path (from server to client), only the sequence number is changing
while the acknowledgment number remains constant for most packets; on
the backward path (from client to server), only the acknowledgment
number is changing and the sequence number remains constant for most
packets. A compression scheme for TCP should thus have packet
formats suitable for either cases, i.e., packet formats that can
carry either only sequence number bits, only acknowledgment number
bits, or both.
In addition, TCP flows can be short-lived transfers. Short-lived TCP
transfers will degrade the performance of header compression schemes
that establish a new context by initially sending full headers. Multiple simultaneous or near simultaneous TCP connections may exhibit much similarity in header field values and context values among each other, which would make it possible to reuse information between flows when initializing a new context. A mechanism to this end, context replication [RFC4164], makes the context establishment step faster and more efficient, by replicating part of an existing context to a new flow. The conclusion from [RFC4413] is that part of the IP sub-context, some TCP fields, and some context values can be replicated since they seldom change or change with only a small jump. ROHC-TCP also compresses the following headers: IPv6 Destination Options header [RFC2460], IPv6 Routing header [RFC2460], IPv6 Hop-by- Hop Options header [RFC2460], Authentication Header (AH) [RFC4302], NULL-encrypted Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) header [RFC4303], Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) [RFC2784][RFC2890] and the Minimal Encapsulation header (MINE) [RFC2004]. Headers specific to Mobile IP (for IPv4 or IPv6) do not receive any special treatment in this document, for reasons similar to those described in [RFC3095].4. Overview of the TCP/IP Profile (Informative)
4.1. General Concepts
ROHC-TCP uses the ROHC protocol as described in [RFC4995]. ROHC-TCP supports context replication as defined in [RFC4164]. Context replication can be particularly useful for short-lived TCP flows [RFC4413].4.2. Compressor and Decompressor Interactions
4.2.1. Compressor Operation
Header compression with ROHC can be conceptually characterized as the interaction of a compressor with a decompressor state machine. The compressor's task is to minimally send the information needed to successfully decompress a packet, based on a certain confidence regarding the state of the decompressor context. For ROHC-TCP compression, the compressor normally starts compression with the initial assumption that the decompressor has no useful information to process the new flow, and sends Initialization and Refresh (IR) packets. Alternatively, the compressor may also support Context Replication (CR) and use IR-CR packets [RFC4164], which attempts to reuse context information related to another flow.
The compressor can then adjust the compression level based on its confidence that the decompressor has the necessary information to successfully process the Compressed (CO) packets that it selects. In other words, the task of the compressor is to ensure that the decompressor operates in the state that allows decompression of the most efficient CO packet(s), and to allow the decompressor to move to that state as soon as possible otherwise.4.2.2. Decompressor Feedback
The ROHC-TCP profile can be used in environments with or without feedback capabilities from decompressor to compressor. ROHC-TCP however assumes that if a ROHC feedback channel is available and if this channel is used at least once by the decompressor for a specific ROHC-TCP context, this channel will be used during the entire compression operation for that context. If the feedback channel disappears, compression should be restarted. The reception of either positive acknowledgment (ACKs) or negative acknowledgment (NACKs) establishes the feedback channel from the decompressor for the context for which the feedback was received. Once there is an established feedback channel for a specific context, the compressor should make use of this feedback to estimate the current state of the decompressor. This helps in increasing the compression efficiency by providing the information needed for the compressor to achieve the necessary confidence level. The ROHC-TCP feedback mechanism is limited in its applicability by the number of (least significant bit (LSB) encoded) master sequence number (MSN) (see Section 6.1.1) bits used in the FEEDBACK-2 format (see Section 8.3). It is not suitable for a decompressor to use feedback altogether where the MSN bits in the feedback could wrap around within one round-trip time. Instead, unidirectional operation -- where the compressor periodically sends larger context-updating packets -- is more appropriate.4.3. Packet Formats and Encoding Methods
The packet formats and encoding methods used for ROHC-TCP are defined using the formal notation [RFC4997]. The formal notation is used to provide an unambiguous representation of the packet formats and a clear definition of the encoding methods.
4.3.1. Compressing TCP Options
The TCP options in ROHC-TCP are compressed using a list compression encoding that allows option content to be established so that TCP options can be added to the context without having to send all TCP options uncompressed.4.3.2. Compressing Extension Headers
ROHC-TCP compresses the extension headers as listed in Section 3.2. These headers are treated exactly as other headers and thus have a static chain, a dynamic chain, an irregular chain, and a chain for context replication (Section 6.2). This means that headers appearing in or disappearing from the flow being compressed will lead to changes to the static chain. However, the change pattern of extension headers is not deemed to impair compression efficiency with respect to this design strategy.4.4. Expected Compression Ratios with ROHC-TCP
The following table illustrates typical compression ratios that can be expected when using ROHC-TCP and IPHC [RFC2507]. The figures in the table assume that the compression context has already been properly initialized. For the TS option, the Timestamp is assumed to change with small values. All TCP options include a suitable number of No Operation (NOP) options [RFC0793] for padding and/or alignment. Finally, in the examples for IPv4, a sequential IP-ID behavior is assumed. Total Header Size (octets) ROHC-TCP IPHC Unc. DATA ACK DATA ACK IPv4+TCP+TS 52 8 8 18 18 IPv4+TCP+TS 52 7 6 16 16 (1) IPv6+TCP+TS 72 8 7 18 18 IPv6+TCP+no opt 60 6 5 6 6 IPv6+TCP+SACK 80 - 15 - 80 (2) IPv6+TCP+SACK 80 - 9 - 26 (3) (1) The payload size of the data stream is constant. (2) The SACK option appears in the header, but was not present in the previous packet. Two SACK blocks are assumed. (3) The SACK option appears in the header, and was also present in the previous packet (with different SACK blocks). Two SACK blocks are assumed.
The table below illustrates the typical initial compression ratios
for ROHC-TCP and IPHC. The data stream in the example is assumed to
be IPv4+TCP, with a sequential behavior for the IP-ID. The following
options are assumed present in the SYN packet: TS, MSS, and WSCALE,
with an appropriate number of NOP options.
Total Header Size (octets)
Unc. ROHC-TCP IPHC
1st packet (SYN) 60 49 60
2nd packet 52 12 52
The figures in the table assume that the compressor has received an
acknowledgment from the decompressor before compressing the second
packet, which can be expected when feedback is used in ROHC-TCP.
This is because in the most common case, the TCP ACKs are expected to
take the same return path, and because TCP does not send more packets
until the TCP SYN packet has been acknowledged.
5. Compressor and Decompressor Logic (Normative)
5.1. Context Initialization
The static context of ROHC-TCP flows can be initialized in either of
two ways:
1. By using an IR packet as in Section 7.1, where the profile number
is 0x06 and the static chain ends with the static part of a TCP
header.
2. By replicating an existing context using the mechanism defined by
[RFC4164]. This is done with the IR-CR packet defined in
Section 7.2, where the profile number is 0x06.
5.2. Compressor Operation
5.2.1. Compression Logic
The task of the compressor is to determine what data must be sent
when compressing a TCP/IP packet, so that the decompressor can
successfully reconstruct the original packet based on its current
state. The selection of the type of compressed header to send thus
depends on a number of factors, including:
o The change behavior of header fields in the flow, e.g., conveying
the necessary information within the restrictions of the set of
available packet formats.
o The compressor's level of confidence regarding decompressor state,
e.g., by selecting header formats updating the same type of
information for a number of consecutive packets or from the
reception of decompressor feedback (ACKs and/or NACKs).
o Additional robustness required for the flow, e.g., periodic
refreshes of static and dynamic information using IR and IR-DYN
packets when decompressor feedback is not expected.
The impact of these factors on the compressor's packet type selection
is described in more detail in the following subsections.
In this section, a "higher compression state" means that less data
will be sent in compressed packets, i.e., smaller compressed headers
are used, while a lower compression state means that a larger amount
of data will be sent using larger compressed headers.
5.2.1.1. Optimistic Approach
The optimistic approach is the principle by which a compressor sends
the same type of information for a number of packets (consecutively
or not) until it is fairly confident that the decompressor has
received the information. The optimistic approach is useful to
ensure robustness when ROHC-TCP is used to compress packet over lossy
links.
Therefore, if field X in the uncompressed packet changes value, the
compressor MUST use a packet type that contains an encoding for field
X until it has gained confidence that the decompressor has received
at least one packet containing the new value for X. The compressor
SHOULD choose a compressed format with the smallest header that can
convey the changes needed to fulfill the optimistic approach
condition used.
5.2.1.2. Periodic Context Refreshes
When the optimistic approach is used, there will always be a
possibility of decompression failures since the decompressor may not
have received sufficient information for correct decompression.
Therefore, until the decompressor has established a feedback channel,
the compressor SHOULD periodically move to a lower compression state
and send IR and/or IR-DYN packets. These refreshes can be based on
timeouts, on the number of compressed packets sent for the flow, or
any other strategy specific to the implementation. Once the feedback
channel is established, the decompressor MAY stop performing periodic
refreshes.
5.2.2. Feedback Logic
The semantics of feedback messages, acknowledgments (ACKs) and negative acknowledgments (NACKs or STATIC-NACKs), are defined in Section 5.2.4.1 of [RFC4995].5.2.2.1. Optional Acknowledgments (ACKs)
The compressor MAY use acknowledgment feedback (ACKs) to move to a higher compression state. Upon reception of an ACK for a context-updating packet, the compressor obtains confidence that the decompressor has received the acknowledged packet and that it has observed changes in the packet flow up to the acknowledged packet. This functionality is optional, so a compressor MUST NOT expect to get such ACKs, even if a feedback channel is available and has been established for that flow.5.2.2.2. Negative Acknowledgments (NACKs)
The compressor uses feedback from the decompressor to move to a lower compression state (NACKs). On reception of a NACK feedback, the compressor SHOULD: o assume that only the static part of the decompressor is valid, and o re-send all dynamic information (via an IR or IR-DYN packet) the next time it compresses a packet for the indicated flow unless it has confidence that information sent after the packet being acknowledged already provides a suitable response to the NACK feedback. In addition, the compressor MAY use a CO packet carrying a 7-bit Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) if it can determine with enough confidence what information provides a suitable response to the NACK feedback. On reception of a STATIC-NACK feedback, the compressor SHOULD: o assume that the decompressor has no valid context, and o re-send all static and all dynamic information (via an IR packet) the next time it compresses a packet for the indicated flow
unless it has confidence that information sent after the packet that is being acknowledged already provides a suitable response to the STATIC-NACK feedback.5.2.3. Context Replication
A compressor MAY support context replication by implementing the additional compression and feedback logic defined in [RFC4164].5.3. Decompressor Operation
5.3.1. Decompressor States and Logic
The three states of the decompressor are No Context (NC), Static Context (SC), and Full Context (FC). The decompressor starts in its lowest compression state, the NC state. Successful decompression will always move the decompressor to the FC state. The decompressor state machine normally never leaves the FC state once it has entered this state; only repeated decompression failures will force the decompressor to transit downwards to a lower state. Below is the state machine for the decompressor. Details of the transitions between states and decompression logic are given in the subsections following the figure. Success +-->------>------>------>------>------>--+ | | No Static | No Dynamic Success | Success +-->--+ | +-->--+ +--->----->---+ +-->--+ | | | | | | | | | | v | | v | v | v +-----------------+ +---------------------+ +-------------------+ | No Context (NC) | | Static Context (SC) | | Full Context (FC) | +-----------------+ +---------------------+ +-------------------+ ^ | ^ | | Static Context | | Context Damage Assumed | | Damage Assumed | | | +-----<------<------<-----+ +-----<------<------<-----+5.3.1.1. Reconstruction and Verification
When decompressing an IR or an IR-DYN packet, the decompressor MUST validate the integrity of the received header using CRC-8 validation [RFC4995]. If validation fails, the packet MUST NOT be delivered to upper layers.
Upon receiving an IR-CR packet, the decompressor MUST perform the actions as specified in [RFC4164]. When decompressing other packet types (e.g., CO packets), the decompressor MUST validate the outcome of the decompression attempt using CRC verification [RFC4995]. If verification fails, a decompressor implementation MAY attempt corrective or repair measures on the packet, and the result of any attempt MUST be validated using the CRC verification; otherwise, the packet MUST NOT be delivered to upper layers. When the CRC-8 validation or the CRC verification of the received header is successful, the decompressor SHOULD update its context with the information received in the current header; the decompressor then passes the reconstructed packet to the system's network layer. Otherwise, the decompressor context MUST NOT be updated. If the received packet is older than the current reference packet, e.g., based on the master sequence number (MSN) in the compressed packet, the decompressor MAY refrain from updating the context using the information received in the current packet, even if the correctness of its header was successfully verified.5.3.1.2. Detecting Context Damage
All header formats carry a CRC and are context updating. A packet for which the CRC succeeds updates the reference values of all header fields, either explicitly (from the information about a field carried within the compressed header) or implicitly (fields that are inferred from other fields). The decompressor may assume that some or the entire context is invalid, following one or more failures to validate or verify a header using the CRC. Because the decompressor cannot know the exact reason(s) for a CRC failure or what field caused it, the validity of the context hence does not refer to what exact context entry is deemed valid or not. Validity of the context rather relates to the detection of a problem with the context. The decompressor first assumes that the type of information that most likely caused the failure(s) is the state that normally changes for each packet, i.e., context damage of the dynamic part of the context. Upon repeated failures and unsuccessful repairs, the decompressor then assumes that the entire context, including the static part, needs to be repaired, i.e., static context damage.
Context Damage Detection
The assumption of context damage means that the decompressor will
not attempt decompression of a CO header that carries a 3-bit CRC,
and only attempt decompression of IR, IR-DYN, or IR-CR headers or
CO headers protected by a CRC-7.
Static Context Damage Detection
The assumption of static context damage means that the
decompressor refrains from attempting decompression of any type of
header other than the IR header.
How these assumptions are made, i.e., how context damage is detected,
is open to implementations. It can be based on the residual error
rate, where a low error rate makes the decompressor assume damage
more often than on a high-rate link.
The decompressor implements these assumptions by selecting the type
of compressed header for which it may attempt decompression. In
other words, validity of the context refers to the ability of a
decompressor to attempt or not attempt decompression of specific
packet types.
5.3.1.3. No Context (NC) State
Initially, while working in the No Context (NC) state, the
decompressor has not yet successfully decompressed a packet.
Allowing decompression:
In the NC state, only packets carrying sufficient information on
the static fields (IR and IR-CR packets) can be decompressed;
otherwise, the packet MUST NOT be decompressed and MUST NOT be
delivered to upper layers.
Feedback logic:
In the NC state, the decompressor should send a STATIC-NACK if a
packet of a type other than IR is received, or if decompression of
an IR packet has failed, subject to the feedback rate limitation
as described in Section 5.3.2
Once a packet has been validated and decompressed correctly, the
decompressor MUST transit to the FC state.
5.3.1.4. Static Context (SC) State
When the decompressor is in the Static Context (SC) state, only the static part of the decompressor context is valid. From the SC state, the decompressor moves back to the NC state if static context damage is detected. Allowing decompression: In the SC state, packets carrying sufficient information on the dynamic fields covered by an 8-bit CRC (e.g., IR and IR-DYN) or CO packets covered by a 7-bit CRC can be decompressed; otherwise, the packet MUST NOT be decompressed and MUST NOT be delivered to upper layers. Feedback logic: In the SC state, the decompressor should send a STATIC-NACK if CRC validation of an IR/IR-DYN/IR-CR fails and static context damage is assumed. If any other packet type is received, the decompressor should send a NACK. Both of the above cases are subject to the feedback rate limitation as described in Section 5.3.2. Once a packet has been validated and decompressed correctly, the decompressor MUST transit to the FC state.5.3.1.5. Full Context (FC) State
In the Full Context (FC) state, both the static and the dynamic parts of the decompressor context are valid. From the FC state, the decompressor moves back to the SC state if context damage is detected. Allowing decompression: In the FC state, decompression can be attempted regardless of the type of packet received. Feedback logic: In the FC state, the decompressor should send a NACK if the decompression of any packet type fails and context damage is assumed, subject to the feedback rate limitation as described in Section 5.3.2.
5.3.2. Feedback Logic
The decompressor MAY send positive feedback (ACKs) to initially establish the feedback channel for a particular flow. Either positive feedback (ACKs) or negative feedback (NACKs) establishes this channel. Once the feedback channel is established, the decompressor is REQUIRED to continue sending NACKs or STATIC-NACKs for as long as the context is associated with the same profile, in this case with profile 0x0006, as per the logic defined for each state in Section 5.3.1. The decompressor MAY send ACKs upon successful decompression of any packet type. In particular, when a packet carrying a significant context update is correctly decompressed, the decompressor MAY send an ACK. The decompressor should limit the rate at which it sends feedback, for both ACKs and STATIC-NACK/NACKs, and should avoid sending unnecessary duplicates of the same type of feedback message that may be associated to the same event.5.3.3. Context Replication
ROHC-TCP supports context replication; therefore, the decompressor MUST implement the additional decompressor and feedback logic defined in [RFC4164].
(page 18 continued on part 2)
