Multipath TCP

Multipath TCP, defined in RFC 8684, is a major extension ot the TCP protocol which is used by the majority of Internet applications. Despite the benefits of Multipath TCP, this protocol is not yet widely deployed. To encourage the adoption and the deployment of Multipath TCP, this document first presents the main use cases for Multipath TCP. Then, after a brief recap of TCP, it provides a detailed description of the Multipath TCP protocol <chapter-mptcp>_ and its main design choices. Then, the document focuses on the main Multipath TCP implementations on recent Linux kernels and Apple devices.

Contributions and comments are more than welcome via https://github.com/mptcp-apps/mptcp-doc. A pdf version of this document is also available from MPTCP-doc.pdf

Contents:

• Use cases
  • Improving resilience
  • Improving quality of experience
  • Improving bandwidth
• The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
• Multipath TCP
  • A brief overview of Multipath TCP
  • Creating a Multipath TCP connection
  • Address and subflow management
  • Data transfer
  • Congestion control
  • Connection release
  • Coping with middlebox interference
  • The protocol details
• Using Multipath TCP on recent Linux kernels
  • Enabling Multipath TCP
  • Analyzing the output of ss
  • Analyzing the output of nstat
  • The Multipath TCP counters
  • Native Multipath TCP applications on Linux
• Multipath TCP on Apple devices
  • Multipath TCP on MacOS Big Sur
  • Multipath TCP on MacOS Ventura
  • Adding Multipath TCP support to existing applications
  • Multipath TCP enabled applications
• Bibliography

Indices and tables

• Index

• Module Index

• Search Page