Enhanced Multipath TCP to Improve the Mobile Device Network Resiliency

Abstract

: Mobile devices consume a significant amount of internet tra ffi c, and they can utilize multiple interfaces like Wi-Fi and cellular networks to share tra ffi c between networks, known as a multi-homed host. This approach enhances the resilience of the internet connection by allowing tra ffi c to flow through multiple paths. The Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) supports this type of connection, but a fairness issue emerges when a multi-path host shares a bottleneck link with regular single-path hosts. To deal with this issue, this paper proposes an enhanced MPTCP (eMPTCP) that uses a throughput adjustment to estimate bandwidth based on TCP Westwood + congestion control. By decreasing each subflow tra ffi c on the multi-path, the proposed eMPTCP achieves fairness in shared links. The simulation conducted using network simulator 2 (ns2) represents the mobile conditions of mobile data air interface, and the results demonstrate that eMPTCP outperforms standard congestion control in achieving connection resilience.