End-to-End Header Compression over Software-Defined Networks: A Low Latency Network Architecture

Abstract

The overhead portion especially for a small packet is one of the most significant parameters that can lower the efficiency of the link utilization. Therefore, many traditional hop-by-hop header compression techniques were introduced to reduce the amount of packet header before transmission. However, those techniques still cannot overcome the time performance issue as compression mechanism requires longer processing time. In the time-sensitive applications such as VoIP, high network latency can lead to voice quality problems. To improve the time performance, instead of using hop-by-hop basis, the authors propose a new header compression mechanism which can be deployed in end-to-end nodes using the Software-Defined Network concept. This mechanism can reduce both packet size and time delay. This research will show the results of round-trip time between our end-to-end header compression mechanism, multiple hop-by-hop header compression mechanism, and normal IP routing algorithm.