Patent ID: 7849489

Claim:
A subscriber station in a wireless communication system, comprising: a media access control; a wireless receiver coupled to the media access control; and a wireless transmitter coupled to the media access control; wherein the media access control is configured to generate a registration message that indicates support for a plurality of protocol-specific header suppression techniques by the subscriber station and wherein the wireless transmitter is configured to wirelessly transmit the registration message to a base station; wherein the wireless receiver is configured to wirelessly receive a response to the registration message from the base station and to provide the response to the registration message to the media access control, the response to the registration message indicating whether or not the plurality of protocol-specific header suppression techniques is supported by the base station; and wherein the media access control is further configured to format data for wireless transmission to the base station in accordance with a selected one of the plurality of protocol-specific header suppression techniques if the response to the registration message indicates the plurality of protocol-specific header suppression techniques is supported by the base station.