Multipath Router is an example of a device in development that uses the mutlipath TCP.
Multipath TCP is is an effort towards enabling the simultaneous use of several IP-addresses/interfaces by a modification of the TCP protocol that presents a regular TCP interface to applications, while in fact spreading data across several subflows. Benefits of this include better resource utilization, better throughput and smoother reaction to failures. This means, for example, that your mobile device which up to now would utilize each of its connection methods (3g, 4g, Wi Fi) in isolation could potentially use each connection simultaneously making full use of multipath TCP’s intelligent load balancing algorithms to ensure the most stable and efficient connection.
This has big implications for the retail broadband/mobile market as now devices could be developed that manage to link all of the currently isolated methods of internet access and give customers a vastly more reliable, faster and efficient internet connection than current TCP methods.It was developed by Sébastien Barré in 2009 and has now seen adoption by major companies such as Apple in small but interesting ways.
What could this mean for Africa?: Continue reading “A Look at Mutlipath TCP”
