Deconstructing MPTCP performance

Behnaz Arzani, Alexander Gurney, Sitian Cheng, Roch Guerin, Boon Thau Loo

The paper seeks to broaden our understanding of MPTCP and focuses on the impact that
initial sub-path selection can have on performance. Using empirical data, it demonstrates
that which sub-path is chosen to start an MPTCP connection can have unintuitive
consequences. Using numerical analysis and a model-driven investigation, the paper
elucidates and validates the empirical results, and highlights MPTCP’s non-linear coupling
between paths as a primary cause for this behavior. The findings are both of operational
interest and may help design better MPTCP schedulers, as they are also exposed to
complex interactions with MPTCP’s congestion control.