Navarro-Ortiz Jorge, Ramos-Munoz Juan J, Delgado-Ferro Felix, Canellas Ferran, Camps-Mur Daniel, Emami Amin, Falaki Hamid
Department of Signal Theory, Telematics and Communications, University of Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain.
Research Center on Information and Communication Technologies, University of Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 Sep 18;24(18):6022. doi: 10.3390/s24186022.
Fifth-generation mobile networks (5G) are designed to support enhanced Mobile Broadband, Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications, and massive Machine-Type Communications. To meet these diverse needs, 5G uses technologies like network softwarization, network slicing, and artificial intelligence. Multi-connectivity is crucial for boosting mobile device performance by using different Wireless Access Technologies (WATs) simultaneously, enhancing throughput, reducing latency, and improving reliability. This paper presents a multi-connectivity testbed from the 5G-CLARITY project for performance evaluation. MultiPath TCP (MPTCP) was employed to enable mobile devices to send data through various WATs simultaneously. A new MPTCP scheduler was developed, allowing operators to better control traffic distribution across different technologies and maximize aggregated throughput. Our proposal mitigates the impact of limitations on one path affecting others, avoiding the Head-of-Line blocking problem. Performance was tested with real equipment using 5GNR, Wi-Fi, and LiFi -complementary WATs in the 5G-CLARITY project-in both static and dynamic scenarios. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheduler can manage the traffic distribution across different WATs and achieve the combined capacities of these technologies, approximately 1.4 Gbps in our tests, outperforming the other MPTCP schedulers. Recovery times after interruptions, such as coverage loss in one technology, were also measured, with values ranging from 400 to 500 ms.
第五代移动网络（5G）旨在支持增强型移动宽带、超可靠低延迟通信和大规模机器类型通信。为满足这些多样化需求，5G采用了网络软件化、网络切片和人工智能等技术。多连接对于通过同时使用不同的无线接入技术（WAT）来提升移动设备性能、提高吞吐量、降低延迟和提高可靠性至关重要。本文介绍了来自5G-CLARITY项目的用于性能评估的多连接测试平台。采用多路径传输控制协议（MPTCP）使移动设备能够同时通过各种WAT发送数据。开发了一种新的MPTCP调度器，使运营商能够更好地控制跨不同技术的流量分配，并最大化聚合吞吐量。我们的提议减轻了一条路径上的限制对其他路径的影响，避免了队头阻塞问题。使用5G-CLARITY项目中的5GNR、Wi-Fi和LiFi（互补WAT）等真实设备在静态和动态场景下进行了性能测试。结果表明，所提出的调度器能够管理跨不同WAT的流量分配，并实现这些技术的组合容量，在我们的测试中约为1.4 Gbps，优于其他MPTCP调度器。还测量了中断（如一种技术中的覆盖丢失）后的恢复时间，其值在400到500毫秒之间。
