Title
Multi-path TCP: Boosting Fairness in Cellular Networks
Abstract
Cellular providers are rapidly deploying multiple technologies like cell biasing, carrier aggregation, co-ordinated interference control/scheduling to improve capacity and coverage. In this paper, we explore a complementary transport layer approach based on multipath TCP that can concurrently use multiple interfaces to boost throughput of users with poor coverage and improve fairness. Multipath TCP has been recently standardized by IETF and requires no modifications to applications. It has been shown to improve fairness and throughput in wire line environments and individual user throughputs in wireless networks. However, in a wireless multi-user environment, it is not clear that it is always beneficial, as we show in this paper. Therefore, we examine if it is indeed beneficial for a service provider to judiciously decide whether to enable multiple cellular interfaces on a smart phone based on a global centralized view of its network. Alternatively, should a device decide independently based only on a local view? To quantify the network wide impact in a system where users have multiple cellular interfaces, we have developed centralized and distributed heuristic algorithms to evaluate this, particularly in the context of fairness across all the users. Our simulations and numerical models show that there are potential gains in fairness (15-30%) to be realized by judiciously enabling multipath connections at the cell edge. These gains diminish as the number of users in a cell increases or users behave greedily. We also quantify the delicate balance between throughput and fairness. Our analysis provides an intuition on which user(s) in a cellular network stand to benefit the most by enabling multiple interfaces. We also discuss LTE protocol mechanisms to enforce associations of specific interfaces to specific cells.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1109/ICNP.2014.48
ICNP
Keywords
DocType
ISSN
Long Term Evolution,cellular radio,multi-access systems,transport protocols,IETF,LTE protocol,cellular networks,complementary transport layer,fairness boosting,multipath TCP,multipath connections,wireless multiuser environment
Conference
1092-1648
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.36
0
Authors
7
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Ashwin Sridharan110.36
Rakesh Sinha241466.96
Rittwik Jana378680.35
Bo Han419112.73
K. K. Ramakrishnan547931087.48
N. K. Shankaranarayanan613619.42
Ioannis Broustis742529.27