Better network latency with end-to-end header compression in SDN architecture

A small link bandwidth can lead to insufficient capacity and delay problems. Header compression can reduce the amount of packet header to make link utilization more efficient, but this compression technique introduces a longer processing time and may increase end-to-end delay. In time-sensitive applications such as VoIP, this additional delay is unacceptable since high network latency can lead to many voice quality problems. Therefore, we propose a new header compression mechanism that can be deployed in end-to-end nodes using the software-defined networking concept in contrast to conventional header compression where the compression procedure works on a hop-by-hop basis. This new architecture allows both the packet size and the time delay to be appropriately reduced. Here, we compare end-to-end packet delay results for our end-to-end header compression mechanism, the multiple hop-by-hop header compression mechanism, and the normal IP forwarding method.