Software-defined multipath-TCP for smart mobile devices

Abstract

Current mobile consumer devices are equipped with the ability to connect to the Internet using a variety of heterogeneous wireless network technologies (e.g., Wi-Fi and LTE). These devices generally opt to statically connect using a single technology, based on predefined priorities. This static behavior does not allow the network to unlock its full potential, which becomes increasingly more important as the requirements of services, in terms of for example throughput and reliability, grow. Multipath TCP (MPTCP) is a solution that allows the simultaneous use of multiple network interfaces. However, it does this uncoordinated for a single connection between two endpoints. Therefore, this paper proposes a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) architecture to enable coordinated multi-path routing across the several networks for mobile devices. Moreover, we propose a novel weighted MPTCP scheduler that allows the transmission of certain controllable percentages of data per network interface. The proposed idea is evaluated through a real-life prototype implementation with a smartphone.