System for a Generalized Packet Header Suppression Mechanism Using a Wireless Communications Medium

1 . A system for reducing the bandwidth required to transmit a data packet via a wireless network, the system comprising a transmitting node configured:

to generate a packet to be transmitted via the wireless network;

to determine a packet type of the packet to be transmitted via the wireless network;

to select a suppression rule from a table of suppression rules based on the type of the packet to be transmitted;

to apply the suppression rule to the packet to generate a suppressed packet, wherein the transmitter node applies the suppression rule by suppressing at least a portion of the header of the packet and by adding a descriptor associated with the suppression rule to the packet; and

to transmit the suppressed packet via the wireless network.

2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a receiving node configured:

to receive the suppressed packet from the transmitting node via the wireless network;

to select an expansion rule from a table of expansion rules based on the descriptor included with the suppressed packet; and

to apply the expansion rule to the suppressed packet to generate an expanded packet.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the packet type is one of a bandwidth request, a bandwidth grant, a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol acknowledgment message, a voice packet, a default message, a contention burst, and a reserved burst.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter node is further configured to allocate bandwidth for the suppressed packet.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the table of suppression rules includes a parser specification sub-table, an expansion sub-table and a mask specification sub-table.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the table of suppression rules includes:

a parser specification sub-table, wherein the parser specification sub-table comprises a specification of a suppressed packet header to reconstruct and flags to operate hardware to parse the reconstructed packet;

an expansion sub-table, wherein the expansion sub-table comprises values of fields that are suppressed so that a full header can be reconstructed from a suppressed header; and

a mask specification sub-table, wherein the mask specification sub-table comprises a byte mask to reconstruct the packet.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting node is further configured to apply the suppression rule by suppressing the entire header of the packet.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting node is further configured to apply the suppression rule by suppressing only a portion of the header of the packet.

9 . A system for reducing the bandwidth required to wirelessly receive a packet from a transmitting node via a wireless network, the system comprising a receiving node configured:

to receive a suppressed packet via the wireless network,

to select an expansion rule from a table of expansion rules based on a descriptor included with the suppressed packet; and

to apply the expansion rule to the packet to generate a reconstructed packet.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein a table of suppression rules associated with the transmitting node and the table of expansion rules are identical.

11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein a table of suppression rules associated with the transmitting node and the table of expansion rules are set-up when the wireless network is initially configured.

12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the transmitting node and the receiving node are further configured to maintain synchronization between the table of suppression rules and the table of expansion rules.

13 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the reconstructed packet is of a type that is one of: a bandwidth request, a bandwidth grant, a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol acknowledgment message, a voice packet, a default message, a contention burst, and a reserved burst.

14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the receiving node is further configured to apply the expansion rule to provide the full header of the reconstructed packet.

15 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the receiving node is further configured to apply the expansion rule to provide a portion of the full header of the reconstructed packet.

16 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the table of expansion rules includes:

a parser specification sub-table, wherein the parser specification sub-table comprises a specification of a suppressed packet header to reconstruct and flags to operate hardware to parse the reconstructed packet;

an expansion sub-table, wherein the expansion sub-table comprises values of fields that are suppressed so that a full header can be reconstructed from a suppressed header; and

a mask specification sub-table, wherein the mask specification sub-table comprising a byte mask to reconstruct the suppressed packet.

17 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the parser specification sub-table further comprises a version code field, a packet type field, a header length field, a packet length field, an error check code field, a baseline privacy code field, a suppression code field, a fragmentation code field and an extended header length field.

18 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the expansion sub-table further comprises a number of suppressed bytes field and values of bytes suppressed.