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rfc:rfc3409

Network Working Group K. Svanbro Request for Comments: 3409 Ericsson Category: Informational December 2002

  Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust RTP/UDP/IP Header Compression

Status of this Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
 not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
 memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

 This document describes lower layer guidelines for robust header
 compression (ROHC) and the requirements ROHC puts on lower layers.
 The purpose of this document is to support the incorporation of
 robust header compression algorithms, as specified in the ROHC
 working group, into different systems such as those specified by
 Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 3GPP Project 2 (3GPP2),
 European Technical Standards Institute (ETSI), etc.  This document
 covers only lower layer guidelines for compression of RTP/UDP/IP and
 UDP/IP headers as specified in [RFC3095].  Both general guidelines
 and guidelines specific for cellular systems are discussed in this
 document.

Table of Contents

 1.  Introduction.................................................. 2
 2.  General guidelines............................................ 2
       2.1.  Error detection....................................... 2
       2.2.  Inferred header field information..................... 3
       2.3.  Handling of header size variation..................... 3
       2.4.  Negotiation of header compression parameters.......... 5
       2.5.  Demultiplexing of flows onto logical channels......... 5
       2.6.  Packet type identification............................ 5
       2.7.  Packet duplication.................................... 6
       2.8.  Packet reordering..................................... 6
       2.9.  Feedback packets...................................... 6
 3.  Cellular system specific guidelines........................... 7
       3.1.  Handover procedures................................... 7
       3.2.  Unequal error detection (UED)......................... 8
       3.3.  Unequal error protection (UEP)........................ 9

Svanbro Informational [Page 1] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

 4.  IANA Considerations........................................... 9
 5.  Security Considerations....................................... 9
 6.  References.................................................... 9
 7.  Author's Address..............................................10
 8.  Full Copyright Statement......................................11

1. Introduction

 Almost all header compression algorithms [RFC1144, RFC2507, RFC2508]
 rely on some functionality from the underlying link layer.  Headers
 (compressed or not) are expected to be delivered without any residual
 bit errors.  IP length fields are inferred from link layer length
 fields.  Packet type identification may be separated from the header
 compression scheme and performed at the underlying link layer.
 [RFC2509], for example, elaborates on how to incorporate IP header
 compression [RFC2507] in PPP [RFC1661].
 It is important to be aware of such assumptions on required
 functionality from underlying layers when incorporating a header
 compression scheme into a system.  The functionality required by a
 specific header compression scheme from lower layers may also be
 needed if incorporation of a header compression scheme is to be
 prepared without knowing the exact details of the final scheme.
 This document describes lower layer guidelines for robust RTP/UDP/IP
 header compression [RFC3095] as specified by the ROHC working group.
 [RFC3095] will from this point be referenced to as ROHC.  These
 guidelines should simplify incorporation of the robust header
 compression algorithms into cellular systems like those standardized
 by 3GPP, 3GPP2, ETSI, etc, and also into specific link layer
 protocols such as PPP.  The document should also enable preparation
 of this incorporation without requiring detailed knowledge about the
 final header compression scheme.  Relevant standardization groups
 standardizing link layers should, aided by this document, include
 required functionality in "their" link layers to support robust
 header compression.
 Hence, this document clarifies the requirements ROHC put on lower
 layers, while the requirements on ROHC may be found in [RFC3096].

2. General guidelines

2.1. Error detection

 All current header compression schemes [RFC1144, RFC2507, RFC2508]
 rely on lower layers to detect errors in (compressed) headers.  This
 is usually done with link layer checksums covering at least the

Svanbro Informational [Page 2] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

 compressed header.  However, any error detecting mechanism may fail
 to detect some bit errors, which are usually called residual bit
 errors.
 As for non-compressed IP packets, lower layers must provide similar
 error detection, at least for ROHC headers.  ROHC has been designed
 not to increase the residual bit error rate (for reasonable residual
 error rates) compared to the case when no header compression is used.
 Headers passed up to the header decompressor should, however, have a
 residual bit error probability close to zero.
 A ROHC decompressor might make use of packets with erroneous headers,
 even if they must be discarded.  It is therefore recommended that
 such invalid packets are passed up to the decompressor instead of
 being discarded by lower layers, but the packet must then be
 accompanied with an error indication.

2.2. Inferred header field information

 Some fields of the RTP/UDP/IP headers may be classified as inferred,
 that is their values are to be inferred from other values or from an
 underlying link layer.  A ROHC decompressor requires that at least
 the following information can be inferred from any underlying link
 layer:
 Packet Length (IPv4) / Payload Length (IPv6)
   The received packet (with compressed header) length.
 Length (UDP)
   This field is redundant with the Packet Length (IPv4) or the
   Payload Length (IPv6) field.
 In summary, all these fields relate to the length of the packet the
 compressed header is included in.  These fields may thus be inferred
 by the decompressor if one packet length value is signaled from the
 link layer to the decompressor on a per packet basis.  This packet
 length value should be the length of the received packet including
 the (compressed) header.

2.3. Handling of header size variations

 It is desirable for many cellular link layer technologies that bit
 rate variations and thus packet size variations are minimized.
 However, there will always be some variation in compressed header
 sizes since there is a trade-off between header size variations and
 compression efficiency, and also due to events in the header flow and

Svanbro Informational [Page 3] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

 on the channel.  Variations in header sizes cause variations in
 packet sizes depending on variations of payload size.  The following
 will only treat header size variations caused by ROHC and not packet
 size variations due to variations of payload size.
 The link layer must in some manner support varying header sizes from
 40 bytes (full RTP/UDP/IPv4 header) or 60 bytes (full RTP/UDP/IPv6)
 down to 1 byte for the minimal compressed header.  It is likely that
 the small compressed headers dominate the flow of headers, and that
 the largest headers are sent rarely, e.g., only a few times in the
 initialization phase of the header compression scheme.
 Header size variations and thus packet size variations depend on
 numerous factors.  Unpredictable changes in the RTP, UDP or IP
 headers may cause compressed headers to momentarily increase in size,
 and header sizes may depend on packet loss rate at lower layers.
 Header size distributions depend also on the mode ROHC operates in.
 However, for e.g., a voice application, carried by RTP/UDP/IPv4, with
 a constant speech frame size and silence suppression, the following
 basic header size changes may be considered as typical:
 In the very beginning of the speech session, the ROHC scheme is
 initialized by sending full headers called IR/DYN.  These are the
 largest headers, with sizes depending basically on the IP-version.
 For IPv4 the size is approximately 40 bytes, and for IPv6
 approximately 60 bytes.  The IR/DYN headers are used typically during
 one round trip time, possible interleaved with compressed headers.
 After that, usually only compressed headers are sent.  Compressed
 headers may vary in size from 1 byte up to several bytes.  The
 smallest compressed headers are used when there is no unpredictable
 changes in header fields, typically during a talk spurt.  In the
 beginning of a talk spurt, compressed header sizes may increase by
 one or a few bytes momentarily.  Apart from increases due to new talk
 spurts, compressed headers may increase in size momentarily due to
 unpredictable changes in header fields.
 ROHC provides some means to limit the amount of produced header
 sizes.  In some cases a larger header than needed may be used to
 limit the number of header sizes used.  Padding octets may also be
 used to fill up to a desired size.  Chapter 6.3 (Implementation
 parameters) in [RFC3095] provides optional implementation parameters
 that make it possible to mandate how a ROHC implementation should
 operate, for instance to mandate how many header sizes that may be
 used.

Svanbro Informational [Page 4] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

2.4. Negotiation of header compression parameters

 ROHC has some parameters that need to be configured in an initial
 setup phase.  Which header compression profiles are allowed may have
 to be determined and also what kind of context identification (CID)
 mechanism to use.
 The lower layers supporting ROHC should thus include mechanisms for
 negotiation of header compression parameters such as CID usage and
 header compression profile support.  In certain environments, it
 might also be desirable to have mechanisms for re-negotiation of
 these parameters.
 The negotiation must also make sure that compressor and decompressor
 use exactly the same profile, i.e. that the set of profiles available
 after negotiation must not include two profile identifiers with the
 same 8-bit LSB value.
 For unidirectional links, this configuration might have to be
 performed out-of-band or a priori, and similar methods could of
 course also be used for bi-directional links if direct negotiation is
 not possible.

2.5. Demultiplexing of flows onto logical channels

 In some cellular technologies flows are demultiplexed onto radio
 bearers suitable to the particular flows, i.e., onto logically
 separated channels.  For instance, real-time flows such as voice and
 video may be carried on logically separated bearers.  It is
 recommended that this kind of demultiplexing is done in the lower
 layers supporting robust header compression.  By doing so, the need
 for context identification in the header compression scheme is
 reduced.  If there is a one to one mapping between flow and logical
 channel, there is no need at all for context identification at the
 header compression level.

2.6. Packet type identification

 Header compression schemes like [RFC2507, RFC2508] have relied on the
 underlying link layer to identify different kinds of headers by means
 of packet type identifiers on link layers.  This kind of mechanism is
 not necessarily needed for ROHC since a ROHC packet type identifier
 is included in all compressed ROHC headers.  Only if ROHC packets are
 to be mixed with other packets, such as packets compressed by other
 header compression schemes, must the link layer provide a packet type
 identifier.  In such cases, or if ROHC is used on top of link layers
 already providing packet type identification, one (1) packet type
 identifier must be reserved for identification of ROHC packets. Thus,

Svanbro Informational [Page 5] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

 only one ROHC packet type is needed to mix ROHC and e.g., RFC 2507
 flows, or to support ROHC on links where packet type identifiers are
 already present.

2.7. Packet duplication

 Exact duplications of one and the same packet may waste transmission
 resources and is in contradiction to compression.  Even so, packet
 duplication may occur for various reasons.  Packet duplication may
 also occur in different places along the path for a packet.
 ROHC can handle packet duplication before the compressor but such
 packet duplications should be avoided for optimal compression
 efficiency.  For correct ROHC operation, lower layers are not allowed
 to duplicate packets on the ROHC compressor-decompressor path.

2.8. Packet reordering

 Lower layers between compressor and decompressor are assumed not to
 reorder packets, i.e., the decompressor must receive packets in the
 same order as the compressor sends them.  ROHC handles, however,
 reordering before the compression point.  That is, there is no
 assumption that the compressor will only receive packets in sequence.

2.9. Feedback packets

 ROHC may operate in three different modes; Unidirectional mode (U-
 mode), bidirectional optimistic mode (O-mode) and bidirectional
 reliable mode (R-mode).  A brief description of the modes can be
 found in chapter 4.4 of [RFC3095].
 In U-mode it is not necessary to send any feedback from the
 decompressor to the compressor.  O-mode and R-mode requires however
 that feedback messages from the decompressor to the compressor be
 sent.  Feedback messages consist of small ROHC internal packets
 without any application payload.  It is possible in ROHC to piggy-
 back feedback packets onto regular packets with ROHC compressed
 headers and payload, if there is ROHC type of compression in both the
 forward and reverse direction.  However, this piggy-backing may not
 be desired or possible in some cases.
 To support ROHC O-mode or R-mode operation, lower layers must provide
 transport of feedback packets from decompressor to compressor.  If
 piggybacking of feedback packets is not used, lower layers must be
 able to handle feedback as small stand-alone packets.  For optimal
 compression efficiency, feedback packets from the decompressor should
 be delivered as soon as possible to the compressor.

Svanbro Informational [Page 6] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

3. Cellular system specific guidelines

 An important group of link layer technologies where robust header
 compression will be needed are future cellular systems, which may
 have a very large number of users in some years.  The need for header
 compression is large in these kinds of systems to achieve spectrum
 efficiency.  Hence, it is important that future cellular systems can
 efficiently incorporate the robust header compression scheme.

3.1. Handover procedures

 One cellular specific property that may affect header compression is
 mobility and thus, handover (i.e., change of serving base station or
 radio network controller).
 The main characteristics of handovers relevant for robust header
 compression are: the length of the longest packet loss event due to
 handover (i.e., the number of consecutive packet losses), and
 relocation of header compression context when necessary.
 Depending on the location of the header compressor/decompressor in
 the radio access network and the type of handover, handover may or
 may not cause disruptions or packet loss events in the (compressed)
 header flow relevant for the header compression scheme.  For
 instance, if soft handover is used and if the header
 compressor/decompressor reside above the combining point for soft
 handover, there will be no extra packet losses visible to the
 decompressor due to handover.  In hard handovers, where packet loss
 events due to handover is introduced, the length of the longest
 consecutive packet loss is most relevant and thus should be
 minimized.
 To maintain efficient ROHC operation, it should be ensured that
 handover events do not cause significant long events of consecutive
 packet loss.  The term "significant" in this context relates to the
 kind of loss tolerable for the carried real-time application.
 If hard handovers are performed, which may cause significant long
 events of consecutive packet loss, the radio access network should
 notify the compressor when such a handover has started and completed.
 The compressor could then be implemented to take proper actions and
 prevent consequences from such long loss events.
 Cellular systems supporting robust header compression may have
 internal mechanisms for transferring the header compression context
 between nodes where contexts may reside, at or before handover.  If
 no such mechanism for transferring header compression context between
 nodes is available, the contexts may be resynchronized by the header

Svanbro Informational [Page 7] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

 compression scheme itself by means of a context refresh.  The header
 compressor will then perform a new header compression initialization,
 e.g., by sending full headers.  This will, however, introduce an
 increase in the average header size dependent on how often a transfer
 of context is needed.  To reinitialize the context in such cases, the
 lower layers must indicate to the header compressor when a handover
 has occurred, so that it knows when to refresh the context.  Chapter
 6.3 (Implementation parameters) in [RFC3095] provides optional
 implementation parameters that make it possible to trigger e.g., a
 complete context refresh.

3.2. Unequal error detection (UED)

 Section 3.1 states that ROHC requires error detection from lower
 layers for at least the compressed header.  However, some cellular
 technologies may differentiate the amount of error detection for
 different parts of a packet.  For instance, it could be possible to
 have a stronger error detection for the header part of a packet, if
 the application payload part of the packet is less sensitive to
 errors, e.g., some cellular types of speech codes.
 ROHC does not require UED from lower layers, ROHC requires only an
 error detection mechanism that detects errors in at least the header
 part of the packet.  Thus there is no requirement on lower layers to
 provide separate error detection for the header and payload part of a
 packet.  However, overall performance may be increased if UED is
 used.
 For example, if equal error detection is used in the form of one link
 layer checksum covering the entire packet including both header and
 payload part, any bit error will cause the packet to be discarded at
 the ROHC decompressor.  It is not possible to distinguish between
 errors in the header and the payload part of the packet with this
 error detection mechanism and the ROHC decompressor must assume that
 the header is damaged, even if the bit error hit the payload part of
 the packet.  If the header is assumed to be damaged, it is not
 possible to ensure correct decompression and that packet will thus be
 discarded.  If the application is such that it tolerates some errors
 in the payload, it could have been better to deliver that packet to
 the application and let the application judge whether the payload was
 usable or not.  Hence, with an unequal error detection scheme where
 it is possible to separate detection of errors in the header and
 payload part of a packet, more packets may be delivered to
 applications in some cases for the same lower layer error rates.  The
 final benefit depends of course on the cost of UED for the radio
 interface and related protocols.

Svanbro Informational [Page 8] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

3.3. Unequal error protection (UEP)

 Some cellular technologies can provide different error probabilities
 for different parts of a packet, unequal error protection (UEP).  For
 instance, the lower layers may provide a stronger error protection
 for the header part of a packet compared to the payload part of the
 packet.
 ROHC does not require UEP.  UEP may be beneficial in some cases to
 reduce the error rate in ROHC headers, but only if it is possible to
 distinguish between errors in header and payload parts of a packet,
 i.e., only if unequal error detection (UED) is used.  The benefit of
 UEP depends of course on the cost of UEP for the radio interface and
 related protocols.

4. IANA Considerations

 A protocol which follows these guidelines, e.g., [RFC3095], will
 require the IANA to assign various numbers.  This document by itself,
 however, does not require IANA involvement.

5. Security Considerations

 A protocol which follows these guidelines, e.g., [RFC3095], must be
 able to compress packets containing IPSEC headers according to
 [RFC3096].  There may be other security aspects to consider in such
 protocols.  This document by itself, however, does not add security
 risks.

6. References

 [RFC1144]   Jacobson, V., "Compressing TCP/IP Headers for Low-Speed
             Serial Links", RFC 1144, February 1990.
 [RFC1661]   Simpson, W., Ed., "The Point-To-Point Protocol (PPP)",
             STD 51, RFC 1661, July 1994.
 [RFC2507]   Degermark, M., Nordgren, B. and S. Pink, "IP Header
             Compression", RFC 2507, February 1999.
 [RFC2508]   Casner, S. and V. Jacobson, "Compressing IP/UDP/RTP
             Headers for Low-Speed Serial Links", RFC 2508, February
             1999.
 [RFC2509]   Engan, M., Casner, S. and C. Bormann, "IP Header
             Compression over PPP", RFC 2509, February 1999.

Svanbro Informational [Page 9] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

 [RFC3095]   Borman, C., Burmeister, C., Degermark, M., Fukushima, H.,
             Hannu, H., Jonsson, L-E., Hakenberg, R., Koren, T., Le,
             K., Liu, Z., Martensson, A., Miyazaki, A., Svanbro, K.,
             Wiebke, T., Yoshimura, T. and H. Zheng, "Robust Header
             Compression (ROHC)", RFC 3095, July 2001.
 [RFC3096]   Degermark, M., "Requirements for robust IP/UDP/RTP header
             compression", RFC 3096, July 2001.

7. Author's Address

 Krister Svanbro
 Box 920
 Ericsson AB
 SE-971 28 Lulea, Sweden
 Phone: +46 920 20 20 77
 Fax:   +46 920 20 20 99
 EMail: krister.svanbro@ericsson.com

Svanbro Informational [Page 10] RFC 3409 Lower Layer Guidelines for Robust HC December 2002

8. Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.
 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
 and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
 kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
 followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
 English.
 The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
 This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
 TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

 Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
 Internet Society.

Svanbro Informational [Page 11]

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