Testing the Channel Aggregation Capability of the MPT Multipath Communication Library

The MPT multipath communication library is a promising solution for several problems including reliable data transmission using TCP, real-time transmission using UDP and also wireless network layer routing problems. MPT can aggregate the capacity of multiple physical channels. In this paper, the channel aggregation capability of the MPT library is tested up to twelve channels with 100Mbps or 1000Mbps speed each. Different scenarios are used: both IPv4 and IPv6 are used as the underlying and also as the encapsulated protocols. For the throughput measurements, two high performance Linux workstations having each three quad-port gigabit Ethernet NICs are used with the iperf industrial de facto standard network testing tool. First, the speed of the NICs is limited to 100Mbps by a switch to be able to test the aggregation of high number of channels but then the bare gigabit speed channels are also tested. The aggregate throughput results are presented as graphs in the function of the number of 100Mbps or 1000Mbps channels. The results are interpreted and discussed. Several directions of our future research are outlined and two recommendations are given for the further development of the MPT library. multipath communication; performance testing; channel capacity aggregation