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Computer Science, Networking and Internet Architecture, cs.NI
Abstract:
In today's Internet, mobile devices are connected to multiple access
networks, e.g., WiFi/DSL and LTE. To take advantage of the networks' diverse
paths characteristics (delay, bandwidth, and reliability) and aggregate
bandwidth, we need smart strategies for choosing which interface(s) to use for
what traffic. In this paper, we present an approach how to tackle this
challenge as part of the Operating System (OS): With the concept of Socket
Intents, applications can express what they know about their communication
pattern and their preferences. Using our Socket Intents Prototype and our
modified BSD Socket Interface, this information is used to choose the most
appropriate path or path combination on a per message or per connection basis.
We evaluate our system based on the use case of Web browsing: Using our
prototype and a client-side proxy, we show the feasibility and benefits of our
design. Using a flow-based simulator and a full factorial experimental design,
we study a broad range of access network combinations (based on typical DSL and
LTE scenarios) and real workloads (Alexa Top 100 and Top 1000 Web Sites). Our
policies achieve performance benefits in more than 50% of the cases and
speedups of more than factor two in 20% of the cases without adding overhead in
the other cases.
