Architectural perspective on collaborative multipath TCP in mobile environment

Mobile traffic is growing tremendously as mobile internet is widespread. Users listen to music, watch video, send and receive photos, and take conversation over mobile messenger using mobile networks. Multipath TCP allows simultaneous use of multiple interfaces for a single TCP connection, which enables mobile device utilize 4G and Wi-Fi simultaneously. Many researches have proven in protocol stack that multipath TCP is effective for high throughput and long battery lifetime with acceptable handover delay. In this paper, we describe an overall architecture for collaborative multipath TCP in mobile environment. In addition to the protocol-layer information like RTT and congestion window, we suggest utilizing the status of mobile device and user preference to handle transient situation like walking or moving in a car. Our approach is not an amendment but a complementary to previous multipath TCP mechanism in the aspect of collaboration of protocol, device status, and user preference.