SDN based automated testbed for evaluating multipath TCP
Navin Kukreja, Guido Alberto Maier, Rodolfo Alvizu, Achille Pattavina · 2016
Multipath TCP is an extension to TCP protocol that allows a single connection to be split across multiple paths. MPTCP overcomes few limitations of TCP thereby offering added benefits like increased throughput and network resource utilization and resilience to possible link failures. Different data paths over the network face different end-to-end path delay. The performance of MPTCP is affected not only by the delay but also by the difference in delays experienced by various paths of the same connection. MPTCP runs on the host, and it is not aware of the underlying network topology. Hosts cannot create optimal paths to destination without assistance from a network control element. We use SDN technology to provide this assistance to MPTCP and to setup best available paths for MPTCP connections. In this paper we present the design of an SDN-based path manager for MPTCP, the implementation of an automated testbed for performance evaluation, and an in-depth analysis of different scheduling algorithms to understand how delay and delay differences between the paths affect the overall performance of MPTCP protocol.