Concurrent Multipath Transfer Using Transport Layer Multihoming: Performance during Network Failures

Recent research on Concurrent Multipath Transfer using SCTP multihoming (CMT) proposed various retransmission policies to minimize the negative impacts of receiver buffer (rbuf) blocking that occurs during congestion. Here we investigate CMT’s throughput degradation caused by rbuf blocking during complete and/or short-term network failures. To improve CMT’s performance during failure, we introduce a new state for each destination called the “Potentially Failed” (PF) state, and propose a retransmission policy that takes into account the PF state. Using simulation, we evaluate our solution called CMT-PF, and demonstrate its improved throughput over CMT in failure-prone networks such as FCS battlefield networks.