Multipath TCP

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Multipath TCP (MPTCP) is an ongoing effort of the IETF's Multipath TCP working group, that aims at allowing a TCP connection to use multiple paths to maximize resource usage and increase redundancy.

In January 2013, the IETF published the Multipath specification as an Experimental standard in RFC 6824.

Benefits

The redundancy offered by Multipath TCP enables inverse multiplexing of resources, and thus increases TCP throughput to the sum of all available link-level channels instead of using a single one as required by plain TCP. Multipath TCP is backwards compatible with plain TCP.

Multipath TCP is particularly useful in the context of wireless networks [1] - using both Wi-Fi and a mobile network is a typical use case. In addition to the gains in throughput from inverse multiplexing, links may be added or dropped as the user moves in or out of coverage without disrupting the end-to-end TCP connection. The problem of link handover is thus solved by abstraction in the transport layer, without any special mechanisms at the network or link level. Handover functionality can then be implemented at the endpoints without requiring special functionality in the subnetworks - in accordance to the Internet's end-to-end principle.

Multipath TCP also brings performance benefits in datacenter environments.[2] In contrast to Ethernet channel bonding using 802.3ad link aggregation, Multipath TCP can balance a single TCP connection across multiple interfaces.[3]

User interface

Multipath TCP presents the same user interface as TCP. It modifies TCP so that it presents a standard TCP interface to applications, while in fact spreading data across several subflows.[4]

Implementation

In July 2013, the MPTCP working group reported four independent implementations of Multipath TCP,[5] including the reference implementation[4] in the Linux kernel.[6][7]

The currently available implementations are:

  • Linux Kernel (reference implementation) from Université Catholique de Louvain.[4]
  • FreeBSD (IPv4 only) from Swinburne University of Technology.[8]
  • F5 Networks BIG-IP [9]
  • Citrix Netscaler.[10]
  • Apple iOS7, released on September 18, 2013 is the first large scale commercial deployment of Multipath TCP.[11]

TCP segment structure

Multipath TCP segment structure is described in detail in RFC 6824.

Data structures used by Multipath TCP are located in the TCP Options field, in a variable-length option; the option's registered TCP Option Kind is 30, as reserved by IANA.[12]

The Multipath TCP option has the Kind (30), length (variable) and the remainder of the content begins with a 4-bit subtype field, for which IANA has created and will maintain a sub-registry entitled "MPTCP Option Subtypes" under the "Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Parameters" registry. Those subtype fields are defined as follows:

Value Symbol Name
0x0 MP_CAPABLE Multipath Capable
0x1 MP_JOIN Join Connection
0x2 DSS Data Sequence Signal (Data ACK and data sequence mapping)
0x3 ADD_ADDR Add Address
0x4 REMOVE_ADDR Remove Address
0x5 MP_PRIO Change Subflow Priority
0x6 MP_FAIL Fallback
0x7 MP_FASTCLOSE Fast Close
0xf (PRIVATE) Private Use within controlled testbeds

Values 0x8 through 0xe are currently unassigned.

Protocol operation

Protocol operation is described in detail in RFC 6824.

Congestion control is performed separately for each channel.[10]

Alternatives

Stream Control Transmission Protocol

Stream Control Transmission Protocol is a reliable in-order datagram stream transport protocol originally intended for telecommunication signaling. It supports concurrent use of multiple access links and allows the application to influence the access interface selections on a datagram stream basis. It also supports mobility via access renegotiation. Hence, SCTP is also a transport layer solution. It offers type 3 flow granularity with concurrency, but with more flow scheduling control than Multipath TCP. It also fully supports mobility in a fashion similar to Multipath TCP.[13]

IMS SIP

Within the IMS architecture, SIP can support the concurrent use of multiple contact IP addresses for the registration of one or more IMS user agents. This allows for the creation of multiple IMS signaling paths. On these signaling paths, signaling messages carry Session Description Protocol (SDP) messaging to negotiate media streams. SDP allows for the (re-)negotiation of the streams of one media session over multiple paths. In turn, this enables application layer multipath transport. From this point of view, IMS can therefore offer application layer multipath support with flow granularity and concurrent access. A multipath extension to RTP is currently under discussion within the IETF. Multipath RTP can offer flow granularity with concurrent access and mobility (via IMS, SDP signaling or the RTP control protocol).[13]

Other protocols and experiments

At the session layer, the Mobile Access Router project experimented in 2003 with the aggregation of multiple wireless accesses with heterogeneous technologies, transparently balancing traffic between them in response to the perceived performance of each of them.[14]

Parallel access schemes[13] used to accelerate transfers by taking advantage of HTTP 1.1 range requests to initiate connections to multiple servers of a replicated content, are not equivalent to Multipath TCP as they involve the application layer and are limited to content of known size.

RFC

  • RFC 6181 - Threat Analysis for TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses
  • RFC 6182 - Architectural Guidelines for Multipath TCP Development
  • RFC 6356 - Coupled Congestion Control for Multipath Transport Protocols
  • RFC 6824 - TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses
  • RFC 6897 - Multipath TCP (MPTCP) Application Interface Considerations

See also

  • Transport protocol comparison table

References

  1. ↑ TCP with feed-forward source coding for wireless downlink networks
  2. ↑ Raiciu; Barre; Pluntke; Greenhalgh; Wischik; Handley (2011). "Improving datacenter performance and robustness with multipath TCP". Sigcomm 
  3. ↑ C. Paasch, G. Detal, S. Barré, F. Duchêne, O. Bonaventure. "The fastest TCP connection with Multipath TCP". Retrieved 2013-09-20. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "The Linux kernel MultiPath TCP project". Retrieved 2013-09-21. 
  5. ↑ "Survey of MPTCP Implementations (Internet-Draft, 2013)". Retrieved 2013-09-20. 
  6. ↑ Barre; Paasch; Bonaventure (2011). "MultiPath TCP: From Theory to Practice". IFIP Networking 
  7. ↑ Raiciu; Paasch; Barre; Ford; Honda; Duchene; Bonaventure; Handley (2012). "How Hard Can It Be? Designing and Implementing a Deployable Multipath TCP". USENIX NSDI 
  8. ↑ "Multipath TCP for FreeBSD v0.1". Retrieved 2013-09-23. 
  9. ↑ https://devcentral.f5.com/articles/multipath-tcp-mptcp. Retrieved 2014-02-15.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 John Gudmundson (2013-05-28). "Maximize mobile user experience with NetScaler Multipath TCP". Citrix. Retrieved 2013-09-20. 
  11. ↑ "Apple seems to also believe in Multipath TCP". Retrieved 2013-09-20. 
  12. ↑ "IANA Protocol Registry TCP Option Kind Numbers". Retrieved 2013-09-24. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 P. Rodriguez, E. Biersack (2002-07-01). "Dynamic parallel access to replicated content in the Internet". IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. 
  14. ↑ R. Chakravorty, I. Pratt, P. Rodriguez (2003-07-01). "Mobile Access Router". University of Cambridge, Microsoft Research. 

External links

Wikiversity has learning materials about Transmission Control Protocol
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