An enhanced socket API for Multipath TCP

Multipath TCP is a TCP extension that enables hosts to send data belonging to a single TCP connection over different paths. It was designed as an incrementally deployable evolution of TCP. For this reason, the Multipath TCP specification assumes that applications use the unmodified socket interface. Given the growing interest in using Multipath TCP for specific applications, there is a demand for an advanced API that enables application developers to control the operation of the Multipath TCP stack. Keeping with the incremental deployment objectives of Multipath TCP, we propose a simple but powerful socket API that uses new socket options to control the operation of the underlying stack. We implement this extension in the reference implementation of Multipath TCP in the Linux kernel and illustrate its usefulness in several use cases.

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