In one embodiment, a method comprises: outputting, by a gateway device in a wireless data network comprising wireless network devices, a rule template for execution by any of the wireless network devices, the rule template comprising a device information variable for insertion of a device-specific value by a corresponding wireless network device executing the rule template, a context variable for insertion, by the wireless network devices, of a generic network context, and a compression rule specifying a compression operation and a corresponding decompression operation; and providing the generic network context to the wireless network devices, enabling each wireless network device to selectively execute the rule template, for execution of one of the compression operation on a network protocol data packet or the corresponding decompression operation for recovery of the network protocol data packet, based on the insertion of the corresponding device-specific value for the device information variable.