Is multi-path transport suitable for latency sensitive traffic?

Abstract

This paper assesses whether multi-path communication can help latency-sensitive applications to satisfy the requirements of their users. We consider Concurrent Multi-path Transfer for SCTP (CMT-SCTP) and Multi-path TCP (MPTCP) and evaluate their proficiency in transporting video, gaming, and web traffic over combinations of WLAN and 3G interfaces. To ensure the validity of our evaluation, several experimental approaches were used including simulation, emulation and live experiments. When paths are symmetric in terms of capacity, delay and loss rate, we find that the experienced latency is significantly reduced, compared to using a single path. Using multiple asymmetric paths does not affect latency – applications do not experience any increase or decrease, but might benefit from other advantages of multi-path communication. In the light of our conclusions, multi-path transport is suitable for latency-sensitive traffic and mature enough to be widely deployed.