Application-Layer Multipath Data Transfer Via TCP: Schemes and Performance Tradeoffs

For applications involving data transmission from multiple sources, an important problem is: when sources are allowed to use multiple paths, how does one select paths and control the sending rates on the paths to maximize the aggregate sending rate of the sources? The authors consider this problem in the context of an overlay network by allowing a source to send data over k (k Á? 1) overlay paths to its destination. This problem is NP-hard, and the authors develop an iterative distributed heuristic to solve it. In each iteration, the authors first select paths and then control the sending rates on the multiple paths to maximize the aggregate sending rate of the sources.