A Dynamic Context-Based Header Compression Algorithm for 6LoWPAN Networks

Alsudany, SK; Boussakta, S; Johnston, M

doi:10.1109/SECONW.2016.7746803

A Dynamic Context-Based Header Compression Algorithm for 6LoWPAN Networks

Lookup NU author(s): Sameer Alsudany, Professor Said Boussakta, Dr Martin Johnston ORCiD

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Abstract

Connecting wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to the Internet using the traditional IPV6 protocol is a significant challenge due to the short frame length of the WSN medium access layer and large IPV6 and UDP headers. Therefore, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) recently formulated an encoding format (LoWPA_NIPHC) to compress the IPV6 header from several bytes to several bits. A context table maps the most frequent Internet address prefixes to context identifiers of several bits, which are used in the packets generated by the border router. However, the design of the context table is not covered by this protocol. This paper proposes a scalable and dynamic algorithm that can manage the context table. Mechanisms for updating and synchronizing its contents through the network are implemented, taking into consideration all limiting factors that affect the dynamic and scalability of the algorithm such as the number of router and leaf nodes. Moreover, the system can operate in static rather than dynamic mode by merely ignoring the limiting factors. Simulation results are provided to show the performance of the proposed algorithm.