MLCS: A Multi-level Correlation Scheduling Algorithm for Multipath Transport

The widespread use of network access technology has enabled the mobile terminals to have multiple interfaces, which promotes the development of multipath transport However, there exist some important issues on multipath transport, such as out-of-order packets problem which results from the different performance among sub-flows. Those will lead to unnecessary retransmission, even a decrease in throughput. This paper proposes a novel packet scheduling algorithm named Multi-level Correlation Scheduling (MLCS). MLCS proposes a multipath throughput model to calculate the throughput and paths correlation. MLCS pre-classifies the paths, and it can remove a sub-flow when the performance of the sub-flow is below the criteria, thus decreasing the effects of poor sub-flows and improving the overall throughput. Moreover, MLCS schedules packets based on the path correlations between sub-flows and path transmission ability, so it can make use of the network resources. The simulation results show an increase in throughput of MLCS compared with EMTCP and Coupled MPTCP.