An Energy-aware Multipath-TCP-based Content Delivery Scheme in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

IETF-proposed Multipath TCP (MPTCP) extends the standard TCP and allows data streams to be delivered across multiple simultaneous connections and consequently paths. The multipath capability of MPTCP provides increased bandwidth for applications in comparison with the classic single-path TCP, which makes it highly attractive for the current consumer mobile devices that support more than one radio interfaces (e. g. 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.). However, MPTCP does not consider energy consumption aspects which are highly important for these devices. This paper proposes eMTCP, a novel energy-aware MPTCP-based content delivery scheme which balances support for increased throughput with energy consumption awareness. eMTCP is located at upper transport layer in mobile devices and requires no additional modifications of the MPTCP-enabled server. eMTCP increases the energy efficiency of mobile devices by offloading traffic from the more energy-consuming interfaces to others. Simulation-based experiments employing an eMTCP model which sends data streams via the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) interfaces show an increase of up to 14% in energy efficiency when using eMTCP in comparison with MPTCP and of up to 66% in terms of quality in comparison with single-path TCP.