Traffic distribution approaches in multipath TCP with monetary link-cost awareness

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• at least one computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
• identifying a low cost link and a high cost link of transmission control protocol (TCP) subflows of a multipath TCP (MPTCP) connection formed between a first MPTCP peer and a second MPTCP peer based on an exchange of information between the first MPTCP peer and the second MPTCP peer to tag the high cost link as a cost link;
• determining a congestion level on the low cost link based on feedback from a TCP congestion control mechanism for the MPTCP connection;
• determining whether to send a data packet in the MPTCP connection over the low cost link or the high cost link based on the congestion level on the low cost link and a lower cost of the low cost link compared to a cost of the high cost link;
• sending the data packet over the low cost link as part of the MPTCP connection if it is determined to send the data packet over the low cost link;
• and
• sending the data packet over the high cost link instead of the low cost link if it is determined to send the data packet over the high cost link based on the congestion level on the low cost link and the lower cost of the low cost link compared to the cost of the high cost link.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• identifying a low cost link and a high cost link of transmission control protocol (TCP) subflows of a multipath TCP (MPTCP) connection formed between a first MPTCP peer and a second MPTCP peer based on an exchange of information between the first MPTCP peer and the second MPTCP peer to tag the high cost link as a cost link;
• determining a congestion level on the low cost link based on feedback from a TCP congestion control mechanism for the MPTCP connection;
• and
• sending a data packet over the low cost link as part of the MPTCP connection if it is determined to send the data packet over the low cost link based on the congestion level on the low cost link and a lower cost of the low cost link compared to a cost of the high cost link.