Mobility Context Awareness in Heterogeneous Networks to Enhance Multipath Communications

Mobile communication has been evolving through various generations and is currently on the verge of its fifth generation (5G). The ubiquitous usage of this technology is reflected by its ever increasing number of subscribers and data traffic demand. The contemporary cellular networks are composed of different Radio Access Technologies (RAT) (e.g, LTE, HSPA, (soon) 5G) with different cell sizes, transmission frequencies etc., co- existing with each other forming heterogeneous networks (HetNets). Multipath-TCP (MPTCP) enables simultaneous use of multiple network interfaces (through multiple RATs) available at the UE to maximize resource usage. The application however is oblivious to the presence of multiple TCP connections (or subflows) and perceives it as a regular TCP interface. Though promising in HetNets, MPTCP faces several challenges among which handling of user handover (HO) is a key issue. This paper focuses on the effects of handovers and coverage loss on the performance of MPTCP and proposes Mobility Context Awareness (MCA) as a potential solution. The prediction of HOs in secondary RAT will be beneficial to take appropriate actions (e.g., Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) transmission) in order to sustain scheduled subflows on such RATs. The simulation results show key improvements in goodput, assimilation time of ordered packets during handovers, which become crucial for delay sensitive applications.

[1]  Qingyang Xiao,et al.  A Longitudinal Measurement Study of TCP Performance and Behavior in 3G/4G Networks Over High Speed Rails , 2017, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

[2]  Slawomir Stanczak,et al.  Street-Specific Handover Optimization for Vehicular Terminals in Future Cellular Networks , 2013, 2013 IEEE 77th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring).

[3]  Mark Handley,et al.  The resource pooling principle , 2008, CCRV.

[4]  Caner Kilinc,et al.  Design framework and suitability assessment proposal for 5G air interface candidates , 2016, 2016 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN).

[5]  Li Li,et al.  A measurement study on multi-path TCP with multiple cellular carriers on high speed rails , 2018, SIGCOMM.

[6]  Hossam S. Hassanein,et al.  Optimal predictive resource allocation: Exploiting mobility patterns and radio maps , 2013, 2013 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps).

[7]  Gabriel-Miro Muntean,et al.  A MPTCP-based RTT-aware Packet Delivery Prioritisation Algorithm in AR/VR Scenarios , 2018, 2018 14th International Wireless Communications & Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC).

[8]  Mark Handley,et al.  Design, Implementation and Evaluation of Congestion Control for Multipath TCP , 2011, NSDI.

[9]  Petar Popovski,et al.  The METIS 5G System Concept: Meeting the 5G Requirements , 2016, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[10]  Hans D. Schotten,et al.  Mobility context awareness to improve Quality of Experience in traffic dense cellular networks , 2017, 2017 24th International Conference on Telecommunications (ICT).

[11]  Nandish P. Kuruvatti,et al.  Service-Tailored User-Plane Design Framework and Architecture Considerations in 5G Radio Access Networks , 2017, IEEE Access.

[12]  Vern Paxson,et al.  TCP Congestion Control , 1999, RFC.

[13]  Ralf Schweizer,et al.  Technical Analysis From A To Z , 2016 .

[14]  Bill N. Schilit,et al.  Disseminating active map information to mobile hosts , 1994, IEEE Network.

[15]  Fan Yang,et al.  Work in progress: Using one-way communication delay for in-order arrival MPTCP scheduling , 2014, 9th International Conference on Communications and Networking in China.

[16]  Wei Song,et al.  Goodput improvement for multipath TCP by congestion window adaptation in multi-radio devices , 2013, 2013 IEEE 10th Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC).

[17]  Hans D. Schotten,et al.  Exploiting diurnal user mobility for predicting cell transitions , 2013, 2013 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps).

[18]  C. Raiciu,et al.  Practical Congestion Control for Multipath Transport Prot ocols , 2009 .