Software Defined Multi-Path TCP Solution for Mobile Wireless Tactical Networks

Naval Battlefield Network communications rely on wireless network technologies to transmit data between different naval entities, such as ships and shore nodes. Existing naval battle networks heavily depend on the satellite communication system using single-path TCP for reliable, non-interactive data. While satisfactory for traditional use cases, this communication model may be inadequate for outlier cases, such as those arising from satellite failure and wireless signal outage. To promote network stability and assurance in such scenarios, the addition of unmanned aerial vehicles to function as relay points can complement network connectivity and alleviate potential strains in adverse conditions. The inherent mobility of aerial vehicles coupled with existing source node movements, however, leads to frequent network handovers with non-negligible overhead and communication interruption, particularly in the present single-path model. In this paper, we propose a solution based on multi-path TCP and software-defined networking, which, when applied to mobile wireless heterogeneous networks, reduces the network handover delay and improves the total throughput for transmissions among various naval entities at sea and littoral. In case of single link failure, the presence of a connectable relay point maintains TCP connectivity and reduces the risk of service interruption. To validate feasibility and to evaluate performance of our solution, we constructed a Mininet-WiFi emulation testbed. Compared against single-path TCP communication methods, execution of the testbed when configured to use multi-path TCP and UAV relays yields demonstrably more stable network handovers with relatively low overhead, greater reliability of network connectivity, and higher overall end-to-end throughput. Because the SDN global controller dynamically adjusts allocations per user, the solution effectively eliminates link congestion and promotes more efficient bandwidth utilization.