Virtual Single Network Path by Integrating Multiple and Heterogeneous Challenged Networks

Abstract

Motivated by the question of how to quickly transfer large files if multiple and heterogeneous networks are available but each has insufficient performance for a requested task, we propose a data transfer framework for integrating multiple and heterogeneous challenged access networks, in which long delays, heavy packet losses, and frequent disconnections are observed. An important feature of this framework is to transmit the control information separately from the transmission of data information, where they are flexibly transferred on different types of communication media (network paths) in different ways, and to provide a virtual single network path between the two nodes. We describe the design of the mechanisms of this framework such as the retransmission, the rate adjustment of each data flow, and the data-flow setup control. We validate a prototype implementation through two different experiments using terrestrial networks and a satellite communication system.