Fair Coexistence of Regular and Multipath TCP over Wireless Last-Miles

Abstract

Recent advancements in Internet congestion control have introduced a multipath TCP (MPTCP) that aims to simultaneously utilize multiple available paths in the network. In this paper, we develop an integrated fluid and packet-level analytical model to study the coexistence of regular and MPTCP users sharing a common WiFi access point (AP). We observe a throughput unfairness of MPTCP with regular TCP in the last-mile WiFi networks. In order to fix the fairness issue, we develop a real-time Adaptive Loss Management (ALM) algorithm that continuously monitors the deviation in AP buffer occupancy and adapts its packet admission probability based on a closed form expression derived from our analytical model. We provide a proof as well as show via numerical and simulation results that the proposed ALM algorithm is TCP-friendly by design, and provably stable.