Optimal Concurrent Multipath Data Transfer for Bandwidth Aggregation in Heterogeneous Mobile Networks

• Published in: Wireless personal communications Vol. 107; no. 3; pp. 1383 - 1400
• Main Authors: Syariati, Faris Muhammad, Choi, Kae Won
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 15.08.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bandwidths; Communications Engineering; Computer Communication Networks; Data transfer (computers); Data transmission; Engineering; Multipath transmission; Networks; Optimization; Signal,Image and Speech Processing; Wireless networks; Multipath transmission; Packet scheduler; Bandwidth aggregation
• ISSN: 0929-6212; 1572-834X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11277-018-5969-x

Multipath data transfer enables a network host to send its data stream via multiple different network paths at the same time. In this research, we propose a novel multipath data transfer solution that makes use of a transparent shim layer, named a multipath (MP) layer, between the network and transport layers. We propose a multipath transmission protocol for the MP layer, which splits a single data stream into multiple separate streams on different paths and combines them at the receiving host. In the MP layer, an adaptive scheduler performs data allocation to each network path to maximize the aggregated throughput by optimally balancing the traffic load on each path. We also propose a packet reallocation scheme that retransmits a data packet to another network path in case that the packet fails to be delivered on one path. In this work, we provide a concrete performance analysis for the proposed solutions as well as simulation results to support our analysis.