Embodiments of the invention disclose header compression within a wireless communications network. In an example, the method includes establishing, between an access network and an access terminal, a flow identifier (ID) and mapping protocol to support header compression for packets sent to the access network from the access terminal and intended for an application server. The mapping protocol can be configured to convert packets including the flow ID into packets that conform with a given addressing protocol for routing to the application server. The access terminal sends and the access network receives a first packet of a stream of packets. The first packet includes the flow ID and is in a compressed format compared to that of the same packet conforming with the given addressing protocol. The access network converts the received first packet into a routing packet based on the mapping protocol that conforms with the given addressing protocol.