Title: Channel Bonding of Multiple, Low-Rate Links using MPTCP for Airborne Flight Research
Presenting Author: Joseph Ishac
Organization: NASA Glenn Research Center
Co-Author(s): Matthew Sargent

Abstract:
NASA’s atmospheric research aircraft currently bonds multiple Iridium satellite links into a single network connection using the Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol (MLPPP). MLPPP is an open standard originally developed to gain more network capacity by bonding multiple terrestrial phone connections. Bonding at the link level helps to simplify data management over multiple physical links, which is a complex problem. MLPPP assumes that each link is stable, an assumption that is not true for these satellite based systems. Furthermore, Iridium links are very low capacity. Often four or more links are used just to reach data rates that are usable for the scientists. Rates that, by comparison, are just a fraction of the rate of old dial-up modems. In this effort, we evaluate a new communication protocol, Multipath TCP (MPTCP), which is an experimental extension to the commonplace Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) used in many terrestrial applications. MPTCP allows TCP to manage the complex task of transmitting data across multiple independent links, and dynamically allows for links to be added and removed. Treating each link separately allows link losses and failures to be isolated, no longer impacting the entire network connection. We implement a MPTCP solution for atmospheric research aircraft and show how the solution dynamically scales as the number of connections change, treating data flows equally. The result is a more robust and reliable network connection for researchers and scientists.