Method and device for the reliable transmission of compressed network headers

A method for transmitting data in a transmission system, the data being transmitted in the form of packets comprising at least one compressed header field and one data payload field and according to a format suited to the transmission system comprising the following steps:

• recovering the data packet to be transmitted which comprises a compressed header field and a data payload field, identifying the header field from the payload field;
• applying a selected forward error corrector (FEC) coding to the compressed header field of the data packet, and providing to a link layer, a resulting new packet comprising the FEC coded compressed header and the uncoded payload, while also communicating a protection mode of the selected FEC coding;
• introducing parameters of the FEC coding in a frame check field of a link layer header, whose number of bytes is extended by one or more bytes dedicated to said protection mode and to the information regarding the size of the compressed header;
• and
• generating the link layer header according to a transmission format of the transmission system integrating said protection mode, and an adaptation of an CRC checksum of the link layer.

A system for transmitting data, the data being transmitted in the form of packets comprising at least one compressed header field and one data payload field, comprising a sender and a decoder receiver wherein said sender comprises means for executing the following steps:

• recovering the data packet to be transmitted which comprises a compressed header field and a payload field, identifying the header part from the payload field;
• applying a selected forward error corrector (FEC) coding to the compressed header field of the data packet, and providing to a link layer a resulting new packet comprising the FEC coded compressed header and the uncoded payload, while also communicating a protection mode of the selected FEC coding;
• generating the link layer header according to the transmission format of the transmission system integrating said protection mode, and an adaptation of a CRC checksum of the link layer;
• and
• on reception, performing error corrector decoding in two steps, based on the protection mode integrated in the link layer header, said two steps including:
• a first step of decoding a first part of the FEC coded compressed header, making it possible to deduce information regarding a size of the compressed header,
• a second step of decoding a remainder of the FEC coded compressed header on the basis of the previously determined size information.

A system for transmitting data, the data being transmitted in the form of packets comprising at least one compressed header field and one data payload field, comprising a sender wherein said sender comprises means for executing the following steps:

• recovering the data packet to be transmitted which comprises a compressed header field and a data payload field, identifying the header field from the payload field;
• applying a selected forward error corrector (FEC) coding to the compressed header field of the data packet, and providing to a link layer, a resulting new packet comprising the FEC coded compressed header and the uncoded payload, while also communicating a protection mode of the selected FEC coding;
• introducing parameters of the FEC coding in a frame check field of a link layer header, whose number of bytes is extended by one or more bytes dedicated to said protection mode and to the information regarding the size of the compressed header;
• and
• generating the link layer header according to a transmission format of the transmission system integrating said protection mode, and an adaptation of an CRC checksum of the link layer.