Test Bed for Multipath TCP

Abstract

It was a common assumption on the Internet that endpoints access the network through only one interface. But now, most mobile devices support several access technologies and can have several IP interfaces. This diversity can be used to improve network performance. Traditional protocols do not support multi-access thus new solutions have to be deployed.

This thesis explores the use of MultiPath TCP as a solution to take advantage of multiple interfaces on mobile endpoints. It considers more specifically the case of devices that support several 3G subscriptions. MPTCP can use several interfaces concurrently but it raises a problem of power consumption. Dynamic interface selection is proposed as a way to make a tradeoff between performance and battery life. To evaluate the performance of MPTCP and the different path selection algorithms in real world conditions, this work included the design and implementation of a test bed based on a laptop and three mobile phones. The results showed that MPTCP with or without interface selection can improve the performance of TCP connections on multihomed endpoints.