Enhancing Application Performance through OpenFlow Enabled Multi-homed Devices

Abstract

The increasing demand for mobile data usage is overwhelming our wireless network. However, most of these devices are equipped with multiple network interfaces (multi-homed) which when properly exploited have the potential to increase bandwidth capacity and ensure reliable connectivity. But some technical challenges are restricting our multimode devices to using one single interface at a time. In this paper, we advocate for the use of multiple interfaces simultaneously, which can achieve reliable network connectivity, allow applications to distribute their traffic over multiple interfaces, and aggregate the capacity of different paths. We proposed an OpenFlow-based Multiple WLAN Interface (OpenMWF) prototype, designed by embedding OpenFlow network resource controller and a data forwarding open virtual switch (OVS) in the network stack of the device operating system. A proof of concept implementation and evaluation was carried out using Web-based Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) interactive video conferencing and multi-source downloading utility (Aria2c) applications use cases. The result showed the approach yielded benefits for applications performance, over single interface usage.