An implementation and evaluation of MPTCP-based IoT router.

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Networking
• Internet of Things (IoT)

Background:

• The Internet of Things (IoT) presents challenges for wireless networks due to resource-constrained devices needing efficient data transmission to servers.
• Intermediate devices are crucial for managing direct communication costs and handling data from mobile IoT devices.
• Resilient Internet connections and sufficient bandwidth are essential requirements for these intermediate IoT devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate a Multipath TCP (MPTCP) router for IoT applications.
• To leverage MPTCP's capability for simultaneous transmission over multiple paths to enhance IoT network performance.
• To assess the router's effectiveness in both static and mobility scenarios for IoT connectivity.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of MPTCP kernels on popular IoT devices, specifically Raspberry Pi 3B+ and 4.
• Extensive performance evaluation of the MPTCP-based IoT router in static and mobility testbeds.
• Comparison of MPTCP router performance against single-path Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) under various conditions.

Main Results:

• MPTCP routers demonstrated seamless handover and bandwidth aggregation in static scenarios.
• In mobility scenarios, an MPTCP router with a backup path outperformed single-path TCP.
• MPTCP routers exhibited greater energy efficiency compared to standard TCP implementations on identical hardware.

Conclusions:

• The developed MPTCP IoT router effectively addresses the need for resilient and high-bandwidth connectivity in IoT networks.
• MPTCP offers significant advantages over single-path TCP for both throughput and reliability in diverse IoT environments.
• The MPTCP router provides a more energy-efficient solution for managing IoT data transmission.