Towards Efficient Parallel Multipathing: A Receiver-Centric Cross-Layer Solution to Aid Multipath TCP

Applying Multipath TCP (MPTCP) towards transport-layer parallel multipath transmission to increase the throughput performance of mobile devices has attracted considerable attention. Significant results in this area have resulted in many highly promising solutions; however most of the existing solutions follow the conventional sender-centric design and the strict layering principle, without considering the fact that the receiver's intelligence and cross-layer activities can result in distinct performance advantages. In this paper, we propose MPTCP-RC, a receiver-centric cross-layer solution to aid MPTCP towards efficient parallel multipath data transmission in a wireless environment. In MPTCP-RC, the receiver performs path usage decision and cross-layer activity, by making use of its acquired first-hand knowledge of both transport layer and MAC layer, rather than only giving feedback to the sender then waiting for the decision. We evaluate and demonstrate the benefits of our proposal by simulations.