compression Module
     __________________________________________________________

   Table of Contents

   1. Admin Guide

        1.1. Overview
        1.2. How it works
        1.3. Usage cases
        1.4. Dependencies

              1.4.1. OpenSIPS Modules

        1.5. External Libraries or Applications
        1.6. Exported Parameters

              1.6.1. mc_level (int)

        1.7. Exported Functions

              1.7.1. mc_compress([algo], flags, [whitelist])
              1.7.2. mc_compact([whitelist], flags)
              1.7.3. mc_decompress()

        1.8. Compression performance test for sip messages

   2. Contributors

        2.1. By Commit Statistics
        2.2. By Commit Activity

   3. Documentation

        3.1. Contributors

   List of Tables

   1.1. mc_compress performance test results
   2.1. Top contributors by DevScore^(1), authored commits^(2) and
          lines added/removed^(3)

   2.2. Most recently active contributors^(1) to this module

   List of Examples

   1.1. Set mc_level parameter
   1.2. mc_compress usage
   1.3. mc_compress usage
   1.4. mc_compress usage
   1.5. mc_decompress usage

Chapter 1. Admin Guide

1.1. Overview

   This module implements message compression/decompression and
   base64 encoding for sip messages using deflate and gzip
   algorithm/headers. Another feature of this module is reducing
   headers to compact for as specified in SIP RFC's, sdp body
   codec unnecessary description removal (for codecs 0-97),
   whitelist for headers not be removed (excepting necessary
   headers).

1.2. How it works

   The module is using zlib library to implement compression and
   base64 encoding for converting the message to human readable
   characters. It also uses callbacks to do the
   compression/compaction of the message in order for this
   operations to be done after all the other script functions have
   been applied to the message.

1.3. Usage cases

   As we know, udp fragmentation is a big problem these days, so
   this module comes to try making the message smaller by any
   means. The module can be used to compress the body or some
   headers found in the message or it can decompress compressed
   messages. There are more possibilities to do this: the body can
   be compressed along with the specified headers or the headers
   can be compressed isolated from the body in a specific header.

   Also the module does message compaction: reduction of sip
   header names to short form (for example "Via" becomes 'v' and
   so on), sdp body codec attributes unnecesary description
   ("a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000" becomes "a=rtpmap:0"), unwanted headers
   removal by specfing the ones you want to keep in a whitelist.

   The module also does message decompresion and base64 decoding.
   It can detect the algorithm used for compression from the
   Content-Encoding header. At this moment only gzip and deflate
   algorithms are supported.

1.4. Dependencies

1.4.1. OpenSIPS Modules

   The following modules must be loaded before this module:
     * None

1.5. External Libraries or Applications

   The following libraries or applications must be installed
   before running OpenSIPS with this module loaded:
     * zlib-dev - the development libraries of zlib.

1.6. Exported Parameters

1.6.1. mc_level (int)

   This parameter ranges from 1 to 9 and it specifies the level of
   compression you want to do. Default is 6. 9 is the best, but
   the longest time consuming algorithm and 1 is the worst. If, by
   mistake, you set a lower or a higher level, the default, 6,
   will be used, but you will receive a warning.

   Example 1.1.  Set mc_level parameter
...
modparam("mc", "mc_level", "3")
...

1.7. Exported Functions

1.7.1.  mc_compress([algo], flags, [whitelist])

   This function will compress the current message as specified in
   the parameters. Keep in mind that the compression is done just
   before the message is sent, so that all your lumps can be
   applied.

   Meaning of the parameters is as follows:
     * algo (int, optional) - The algorithm used for compression.
       Currently implemented are deflate ('0') and gzip ('1').
     * flags (string) - Specifies on what to apply the compression
       and where to put the result of the compression.
       The flags parameter can have the following values:
          + “b” - specifies that the body of the message shall be
            compressed. Notice that if the message has no body,
            the flag will have no effect.
          + “h” - specifies that all the headers, except the
            mandatory ones (which will be specified in "whitelist"
            parameter section) and the ones in the whitelist shall
            be compressed.
          + “s” - the headers and the body shall be compressed
            Separately, meaning that a new header named
            "Comp-Hdrs" will be created, and this header will keep
            the content of the compressed headers. Also,
            "Headers-Encoding" header will be created in order to
            keep the algorithm used to compress the headers. If
            this flag is not specified, the headers and the body
            (if 'b' and 'h' flags are specified) will be
            compressed alltogether in the new body of the message.
          + “e” - specify that you want base64 Encoding. If you do
            not specify this flag, by default the module will send
            the raw compressed message in deflate/gzip format.
     * whitelist (string, optional) - header names list, separated
       by '|' which will specify which headers shall not be
       compressed, along with the mandatory ones, which can never
       be compressed. The mandatory headers are the following:
       VIA, FROM, TO, CSEQ, ROUTE, RECORD_ROUTE, CALLID. Also,
       CONTENT_TYPE is mandatory only if CONTENT-LENGTH > 0. Also,
       in case you do not want to use body compression, the
       Content-Length header will become a mandatory header, which
       can not be compressed. In case you do want body
       compression, the old Content-Length Header will be
       compressed, and a new content length will be calculated.
       When you will want to do decompression, the compressed
       length will be removed, and the content length header will
       be the same as the one before the compression.

   This function can be used from REQUEST_ROUTE, LOCAL_ROUTE,
   FAILURE_ROUTE.

   Example 1.2. mc_compress usage
...
if (!mc_compress(0, "bhs", "Max-Forwards|Subject|P-Asserted-Identity"))
        xlog("compression failed\n");
...

   Example 1.3. mc_compress usage
...
$avp(algo) = 1;
$var(flags) = "bs";
$var(list) = "Max-Forwards | Contact";
mc_compres($avp(algo), $var(flags), $var(list);
xlog("compression registered\n");
...

1.7.2.  mc_compact([whitelist], flags)

   This function will realise four different things: headers which
   are not mandatory and are not in the whitelist will be removed,
   headers of same type will be merged together, separated by ',',
   header names which have a short form will be reduced to that
   short form (unless the n flag has been set) and SDP rtpmap
   attribute headers which contain a value lower than 96 will be
   removed, because they are not mandatory. Lumps are not affected
   by this function, because it is applied after all messages
   changes are processed. done. The mc_compact supported short
   forms are:
     * “c” - Content-Type (RFC 3261)
     * “f” - From (RFC 3261)
     * “i” - Call-ID (RFC 3261)
     * “k” - Supported (RFC 3261)
     * “l” - Content-Length (RFC 3261)
     * “m” - Contact (RFC 3261)
     * “s” - Subject (RFC 3261)
     * “t” - To (RFC 3261)
     * “v” - Via (RFC 3261)
     * “x” - Session-Expires (RFC 4028)

   Meaning of the parameters is as follows:
     * whitelist (string, optional) - Whitelist of headers not to
       be removed, except from the mandatory ones. The whitelist
       header names must pe separated by '|'.
     * flags (string) - Controls the behavior of the function.
       Possible flags are:
          + “n” - Do not use short form of headers.

   This function can be used from REQUEST_ROUTE, LOCAL_ROUTE,
   FAILURE_ROUTE.

   Example 1.4. mc_compress usage
...
if (!mc_compact("Max-Forwards|P-Asserted-Identity"))
        xlog("compaction failed\n");
...

1.7.3.  mc_decompress()

   This function does the reverse of mc_compress, meaning that it
   does base64 decoding and gzip/deflate decompression. Keep in
   mind that gzip decompression is a little bit more efficient
   because it is being known the size of the compressed buffer as
   against deflate which does not hold the size of the buffer, so
   the decompression will be made in a static buffer.

   This function requests no parameters.

   WARNING: This function replaces the original buffer of the
   message with the decompressed buffer, so any processing you do
   to the message will not be taken into consideration. Try
   applying the decompression function, before you do any other
   processing to the message.

   This function can be used from REQUEST_ROUTE, LOCAL_ROUTE,
   FAILURE_ROUTE.

   Example 1.5. mc_decompress usage
...
if (!mc_decompress())
        xlog("decompression failed\n");
...

1.8. Compression performance test for sip messages

   The following results have been obtained using the compression
   function included in the module. Using this results, you can
   improve the usage of this module, in order to compress only
   when you think it is favorable enough for you. The algorithm
   used is deflate for all cases because gzip is always 16 bytes
   higher than deflate, which represents the uncompressed size
   modulo 4GB. For the subtests in the same test, the same SIP
   message have been used.

   Table 1.1. mc_compress performance test results
   Test Number Subtest Number Body Size Headers to Compress Size
   Compressed Content Compressed Content Size Compression level
   Compressed size Compression ratio
   1 1 179 82 Body + Headers 261 1 284 0.91
   1 2 179 82 Body + Headers 261 9 284 0.91
   1 3 179 82 Body 179 1 196 0.91
   1 4 179 82 Body 179 9 196 0.91
   2 1 838 392 Body + Headers 1230 1 898 1.36
   2 2 838 392 Body + Headers 1230 9 872 1.41
   2 3 838 392 Body 838 1 568 1.47
   2 4 838 392 Body 838 1 540 1.55
   3 1 1329 607 Body + Headers 1936 1 1396 1.38
   3 2 1329 607 Body + Headers 1936 9 1352 1.43
   3 3 1329 607 Body 1329 1 840 1.58
   3 4 1329 607 Body + Headers 1329 9 804 1.65

Chapter 2. Contributors

2.1. By Commit Statistics

   Table 2.1. Top contributors by DevScore^(1), authored
   commits^(2) and lines added/removed^(3)
     Name DevScore Commits Lines ++ Lines --
   1. Ionut Ionita (@ionutrazvanionita) 50 12 3976 192
   2. Razvan Crainea (@razvancrainea) 32 20 283 518
   3. Liviu Chircu (@liviuchircu) 9 7 31 46
   4. Vlad Patrascu (@rvlad-patrascu) 6 4 8 11
   5. Aron Podrigal (@ar45) 6 3 126 43
   6. Bogdan-Andrei Iancu (@bogdan-iancu) 5 3 4 2
   7. Alexandra Titoc 4 2 4 3
   8. Maksym Sobolyev (@sobomax) 4 2 3 3
   9. Ryan Bullock 3 1 4 4
   10. Julián Moreno Patiño 3 1 2 2

   All remaining contributors: Peter Lemenkov (@lemenkov), Ryan
   Bullock (@rrb3942), Zero King (@l2dy).

   (1) DevScore = author_commits + author_lines_added /
   (project_lines_added / project_commits) + author_lines_deleted
   / (project_lines_deleted / project_commits)

   (2) including any documentation-related commits, excluding
   merge commits. Regarding imported patches/code, we do our best
   to count the work on behalf of the proper owner, as per the
   "fix_authors" and "mod_renames" arrays in
   opensips/doc/build-contrib.sh. If you identify any
   patches/commits which do not get properly attributed to you,
   please submit a pull request which extends "fix_authors" and/or
   "mod_renames".

   (3) ignoring whitespace edits, renamed files and auto-generated
   files

2.2. By Commit Activity

   Table 2.2. Most recently active contributors^(1) to this module
                      Name                   Commit Activity
   1.  Alexandra Titoc                     Sep 2024 - Sep 2024
   2.  Liviu Chircu (@liviuchircu)         Apr 2018 - May 2024
   3.  Maksym Sobolyev (@sobomax)          Feb 2023 - Feb 2023
   4.  Ryan Bullock                        Jan 2023 - Jan 2023
   5.  Bogdan-Andrei Iancu (@bogdan-iancu) Dec 2014 - Apr 2022
   6.  Aron Podrigal (@ar45)               Nov 2021 - Apr 2022
   7.  Razvan Crainea (@razvancrainea)     Dec 2014 - Jul 2020
   8.  Zero King (@l2dy)                   Mar 2020 - Mar 2020
   9.  Vlad Patrascu (@rvlad-patrascu)     May 2017 - Apr 2019
   10. Ryan Bullock (@rrb3942)             Mar 2019 - Mar 2019

   All remaining contributors: Peter Lemenkov (@lemenkov), Ionut
   Ionita (@ionutrazvanionita), Julián Moreno Patiño.

   (1) including any documentation-related commits, excluding
   merge commits

Chapter 3. Documentation

3.1. Contributors

   Last edited by: Bogdan-Andrei Iancu (@bogdan-iancu), Aron
   Podrigal (@ar45), Liviu Chircu (@liviuchircu), Vlad Patrascu
   (@rvlad-patrascu), Razvan Crainea (@razvancrainea), Peter
   Lemenkov (@lemenkov), Ionut Ionita (@ionutrazvanionita).

   Documentation Copyrights:

   Copyright © 2014 Voice Sistem SRL
