Handover optimisation for multipath transmission control protocol‐based concurrent multipath transfer in heterogeneous networks

Abstract

In this Letter, the authors propose a handover optimisation scheme (HOS) for multipath transmission control protocol-based concurrent multipath transfer in heterogeneous networks. HOS includes two sections, proactive packet scheduling and access network selection. The former one proactively stops scheduling packets to the subflow about to be switched in order to reduce out-of-order packets during handover, while the latter one aims to select the optimal network for handover from multiple candidate networks by jointly considering multiple influential factors, i.e. path quality and dwelling time. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, which can achieve relatively higher throughput with fewer handovers.