A method for compressing data is provided that includes receiving a communications flow communicated by a mobile station and communicating with a proxy element in order to determine if an incoming packet is associated with an internet protocol (IP). The method also includes performing a mapping between a non-IP based protocol associated with the incoming packet and an IP protocol in cases where the incoming packet is non-IP based in order to generate an IP compatible packet to be processed by a forwarding path element and communicated to a next destination.