diff --git a/akka-actors/pom.xml b/akka-actors/pom.xml
index 5138a48ccb..30362fefff 100644
--- a/akka-actors/pom.xml
+++ b/akka-actors/pom.xml
@@ -74,6 +74,11 @@
     </dependency>
 
     <!-- For Protocol/Serialization -->
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.h2.compress</groupId>
+      <artifactId>h2-lzf</artifactId>
+      <version>1.0</version>
+    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
       <artifactId>jackson-core-asl</artifactId>
diff --git a/akka-actors/src/main/scala/nio/RemoteClient.scala b/akka-actors/src/main/scala/nio/RemoteClient.scala
index a77e975bcc..99872beb33 100644
--- a/akka-actors/src/main/scala/nio/RemoteClient.scala
+++ b/akka-actors/src/main/scala/nio/RemoteClient.scala
@@ -129,10 +129,18 @@ class RemoteClientPipelineFactory(name: String,
   def getPipeline: ChannelPipeline = {
     val pipeline = Channels.pipeline()
     pipeline.addLast("timeout", new ReadTimeoutHandler(RemoteClient.TIMER, RemoteClient.READ_TIMEOUT))
-    if (RemoteServer.COMPRESSION) pipeline.addLast("zlibDecoder", new ZlibDecoder())
+    RemoteServer.COMPRESSION_SCHEME match {
+      case "zlib" => pipeline.addLast("zlibDecoder", new ZlibDecoder)
+      //case "lzf" => pipeline.addLast("lzfDecoder", new LzfDecoder)
+      case _ => {} // no compression
+    }
     pipeline.addLast("frameDecoder", new LengthFieldBasedFrameDecoder(1048576, 0, 4, 0, 4))
     pipeline.addLast("protobufDecoder", new ProtobufDecoder(RemoteReply.getDefaultInstance))
-    if (RemoteServer.COMPRESSION) pipeline.addLast("zlibEncoder", new ZlibEncoder())
+    RemoteServer.COMPRESSION_SCHEME match {
+      case "zlib" => pipeline.addLast("zlibEncoder", new ZlibEncoder(RemoteServer.ZLIB_COMPRESSION_LEVEL))
+      //case "lzf" => pipeline.addLast("lzfEncoder", new LzfEncoder)
+      case _ => {} // no compression
+    }
     pipeline.addLast("frameEncoder", new LengthFieldPrepender(4))
     pipeline.addLast("protobufEncoder", new ProtobufEncoder())
     pipeline.addLast("handler", new RemoteClientHandler(name, futures, supervisors, bootstrap))
diff --git a/akka-actors/src/main/scala/nio/RemoteServer.scala b/akka-actors/src/main/scala/nio/RemoteServer.scala
index 6534d2b93c..c9528dc6a4 100755
--- a/akka-actors/src/main/scala/nio/RemoteServer.scala
+++ b/akka-actors/src/main/scala/nio/RemoteServer.scala
@@ -26,7 +26,14 @@ import org.jboss.netty.handler.codec.compression.{ZlibEncoder, ZlibDecoder}
 object RemoteServer extends Logging {
   val HOSTNAME = config.getString("akka.remote.server.hostname", "localhost")
   val PORT = config.getInt("akka.remote.server.port", 9999)
-  val COMPRESSION = config.getBool("akka.remote.compression", true)
+  val COMPRESSION_SCHEME = config.getString("akka.remote.compression-scheme", "zlib")
+  val ZLIB_COMPRESSION_LEVEL = {
+    val level = config.getInt("akka.remote.zlib-compression-level", 6)
+    if (level < 1 && level > 9) throw new IllegalArgumentException(
+      "zlib compression level has to be within 1-9, with 1 being fastest and 9 being the most compressed")
+    level
+  }
+
   val CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_MILLIS = config.getInt("akka.remote.server.connection-timeout", 1000)
 
   private var hostname = HOSTNAME 
@@ -73,10 +80,18 @@ class RemoteServerPipelineFactory(name: String, loader: Option[ClassLoader])
     extends ChannelPipelineFactory {
   def getPipeline: ChannelPipeline  = {
     val pipeline = Channels.pipeline()
-    if (RemoteServer.COMPRESSION) pipeline.addLast("zlibDecoder", new ZlibDecoder())
+    RemoteServer.COMPRESSION_SCHEME match {
+      case "zlib" => pipeline.addLast("zlibDecoder", new ZlibDecoder)
+      //case "lzf" => pipeline.addLast("lzfDecoder", new LzfDecoder)
+      case _ => {} // no compression
+    }
     pipeline.addLast("frameDecoder", new LengthFieldBasedFrameDecoder(1048576, 0, 4, 0, 4))
     pipeline.addLast("protobufDecoder", new ProtobufDecoder(RemoteRequest.getDefaultInstance))
-    if (RemoteServer.COMPRESSION) pipeline.addLast("zlibEncoder", new ZlibEncoder())
+    RemoteServer.COMPRESSION_SCHEME match {
+      case "zlib" => pipeline.addLast("zlibEncoder", new ZlibEncoder(RemoteServer.ZLIB_COMPRESSION_LEVEL))
+      //case "lzf" => pipeline.addLast("lzfEncoder", new LzfEncoder)
+      case _ => {} // no compression
+    }
     pipeline.addLast("frameEncoder", new LengthFieldPrepender(4))
     pipeline.addLast("protobufEncoder", new ProtobufEncoder)
     pipeline.addLast("handler", new RemoteServerHandler(name, loader))
diff --git a/config/akka-reference.conf b/config/akka-reference.conf
index c6fbb75cb4..8ca35927e9 100644
--- a/config/akka-reference.conf
+++ b/config/akka-reference.conf
@@ -22,28 +22,26 @@
   boot = ["sample.java.Boot", "sample.scala.Boot", "se.scalablesolutions.akka.security.samples.Boot"]
 
   <actor>
-    timeout = 5000           # default timeout for future based invocations
-    serialize-messages = off # does a deep clone of (non-primitive) messages to ensure immutability
+    timeout = 5000              # default timeout for future based invocations
+    serialize-messages = off    # does a deep clone of (non-primitive) messages to ensure immutability
   </actor>
  
   <stm>
     service = on
-    max-nr-of-retries = 10
-    restart-on-collision = off # (not implemented yet) if 'on' then it reschedules the transaction,
-                               # if 'off' then throws an exception or rollback for user to handle
-    wait-for-completion = 1000 # how long time in millis a transaction should be given time to complete when a collision is detected
-    wait-nr-of-times = 3       # the number of times it should check for completion of a pending transaction upon collision
-    distributed = off          # not implemented yet
+    distributed = off           # not implemented yet
   </stm>
  
   <remote>
-    compression = on            # turn on/off zlib compression
+    compression-scheme = "zlib" # Options: "zlib" (lzf to come), leave out for no compression
+    zlib-compression-level = 6  # Options: 0-9 (1 being fastest and 9 being the most compressed), default is 6
+
     <server>
       service = on
       hostname = "localhost"
       port = 9999
       connection-timeout = 1000 # in millis (1 sec default)
     <server>
+
     <client>
       reconnect-delay = 5000    # in millis (5 sec default)
       read-timeout = 10000      # in millis (10 sec default)
@@ -65,6 +63,7 @@
       storage-format = "scala-json" # Options: java, scala-json, java-json, protobuf
       consistency-level = "QUORUM"  # Options: ZERO, ONE, QUORUM, ALL 
     </cassandra>
+    
     <mongodb>
       hostname = "127.0.0.1"        # IP address or hostname of the MongoDB DB instance
       port = 27017