Enabling Multi-Source Coded Downloads

In this paper, we introduce two multi-source download protocols for loosely orchestrated edge cloud scenarios involving mobile devices. We focus on services with high bandwidth and low delay requirements, like video streaming. We propose MUlti-source Transmission Protocol (MUTP) for uncoded multi-source data delivery and extend it with network coding capabilities to create coded MUTP. We investigate their throughput using a custom designed testbed. We present measurement results collected over eight months that include more than 630 GBs of video download. We show that even when downloading from only two sources, our protocols can match the heavily optimized HTTP protocol. Furthermore, by increasing the number of sources to four or higher, MUTP protocols can outperform the HTTP approach, reaching an up to three-fold goodput increase.