Multipath TCP over network coding for wireless networks
Paul-Louis Ageneau, Nadia Boukhatem · 2017
Multipath TCP (MPTCP) is a promising extension of TCP to spread data across several subflows enabling multiple path support. Like TCP, MPTCP suffers from performance degradation when deployed in wireless networks. It tends to interpret random link losses as congestion signals. Yet, the protocol is showcased for handheld devices with multiple radios to enable throughput aggregation and seamless handover. Intra-flow network coding can significantly enhance reliability in lossy networks, and therefore can improve performance of MPTCP flows. In this paper, we aim at studying the integration of MPTCP with network coding implemented at IP level. The goal is to increase reliability without tampering with the MPTCP stack, providing TCP retro-compatibility and avoiding middle-box traversal issues. We developed a realistic emulated network relying on the MPTCP reference implementation and carried out a performance evaluation of our solution. The results show that the MPTCP goodput is significantly improved when running on top of network coding.