Design and Evaluation of a Cross-Layer MPTCP Path Manager for Vehicular Networks

Abstract

Multipath TCP (MPTCP) has recently emerged as one of the promising protocols to address reliable communication in future mobile networks. However, the frequent handovers across heterogeneous networks under fast vehicle mobility still incur several issues, such as seamless data traffic steering and service interruption. In this paper, we propose a cross-layer path selection method for MPTCP that aims to minimize the impact of handover in vehicular networks. The proposed solution can proactively sense the wireless environment and dynamically manage the MPTCP subflows. It relies on MAC-layer information of wireless interface to evaluate the quality of the network in advance and react faster to the link failure. The path management application resides at the userspace daemon level, which controls the MPTCP subflows over the netlink socket. The described method offers extensive control capabilities and makes it easy to implement complex path management policies. Evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed method can predict connection loss and perform fast and seamless handovers in vechicular networks.