Wireless transmission rate selection with stateless and offline dictionary compression

1 . A method comprising:

selecting, by a device in a wireless network, a transmission rate for one or more packets to be sent, by using a received signal strength indicator value to perform a lookup in a rate lookup table populated during a sampling phase, the rate lookup table including an indication of compression to be applied based on the received signal strength indicator value;

making, by the device, a determination that the one or more packets should be compressed, based on the transmission rate selected by the device and a characteristic of the one or more packets;

applying, by the device and based on the determination, stateless offline dictionary compression to the one or more packets in accordance with the compression to be applied determined by the lookup, to form a compressed stream of the one or more packets, wherein the stateless offline dictionary compression uses a predetermined offline dictionary that is unchanged during compression of the one or more packets; and

sending, by the device, the compressed stream via the wireless network and using the transmission rate selected by the device.

2 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein making the determination that the one or more packets should be compressed, based on the transmission rate selected by the device comprises:

determining that the transmission rate is below a predefined threshold.

3 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein the device selects the transmission rate further in part on a quality of service tag associated with the one or more packets.

4 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein the device is located onboard a moving vehicle.

5 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein the device makes the determination that the one or more packets should be compressed, based further in part on the one or more packets being larger than a predefined size threshold.

6 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein selecting the transmission rate for the one or more packets to be sent comprises:

performing, by the device and using the received signal strength indicator value, a lookup of one or more wireless transmission parameters from the rate lookup table.

7 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein sending comprises sending a stream of packets via multiple wireless paths in compressed and uncompressed forms.

8 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein the received signal strength indicator value is an expected value.

9 . The method as in claim 8 , wherein the expected value is based on a history of observed received signal strength indicators at a location of the device in the wireless network.

10 . The method as in claim 6 , wherein making the determination that the one or more packets should be compressed uses the transmission rate obtained from the lookup of the rate lookup table.

11 . An apparatus, comprising:

one or more interfaces to communicate with a wireless network;

a processor coupled to the one or more interfaces that is configured to execute one or more processes; and

a memory configured to store a process of the one or more processes that is executable by the processor, the process when executed configured to:

select a transmission rate for one or more packets to be sent, by using a received signal strength indicator value to perform a lookup in a rate lookup table populated during a sampling phase, the rate lookup table including an indication of compression to be applied based on the received signal strength indicator value;

make a determination that the one or more packets should be compressed, based on the transmission rate selected by the apparatus and a characteristic of the one or more packets;

apply, based on the determination, stateless offline dictionary compression to the one or more packets in accordance with the compression to be applied determined by the lookup, to form a compressed stream of the one or more packets, wherein the stateless offline dictionary compression uses a predetermined offline dictionary that is unchanged during compression of the one or more packets; and

send the compressed stream of the one or more packets via the wireless network and using the transmission rate selected by the apparatus.

12 . The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the apparatus makes the determination that the one or more packets should be compressed, based on the transmission rate selected by the apparatus by:

determining that the transmission rate is below a predefined threshold.

13 . The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the apparatus selects the transmission rate further in part on a quality of service tag associated with the one or more packets.

14 . The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the apparatus is located onboard a moving vehicle.

15 . The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the apparatus makes the determination that the one or more packets should be compressed, based further in part on the one or more packets being larger than a predefined size threshold.

16 . The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the apparatus selects the transmission rate for the one or more packets to be sent by:

performing, using the received signal strength indicator value, a lookup of one or more wireless transmission parameters from the rate lookup table.

17 . The apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the rate lookup table defines a channel occupancy time that takes into account a compression ratio used for packets transmitted during the sampling phase.

18 . The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the received signal strength indicator value is an expected value.

19 . The apparatus as in claim 18 , wherein the expected value is based on a history of observed received signal strength indicators at a location of the apparatus in the wireless network.

20 . A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing program instructions that cause a device in a wireless network to execute a process comprising:

selecting, by the device in the wireless network, a transmission rate for one or more packets to be sent, by using a received signal strength indicator value to perform a lookup in a rate lookup table populated during a sampling phase, the rate lookup table including an indication of compression to be applied based on the received signal strength indicator value;

making, by the device, a determination that the one or more packets should be compressed, based on the transmission rate selected by the device and a characteristic of the one or more packets;

applying, by the device and based on the determination, stateless offline dictionary compression to the one or more packets in accordance with the compression to be applied determined by the lookup, to form a compressed stream of the one or more packets, wherein the stateless offline dictionary compression uses a predetermined offline dictionary that is unchanged during compression of the one or more packets; and

sending, by the device, the compressed stream of the one or more packets via the wireless network and using the transmission rate selected by the device.