A testbed for developing, simulating and experimenting multipath aggregation algorithms

Abstract

Today, electronic devices may have multiple possibilities to communicate, either through wired or wireless interfaces. Despite this diversity, devices still fail to fully use the available resources by not simultaneously using multiple channels to their full extent. This is especially true in wireless channels where the efficient aggregation of multiple channels has proved to be a difficult task, as shown in recent simulation based works. In this Work In Progress paper, we present a testbed suitable to the evaluation of aggregation algorithms under real network environments. The proposed testbed aims to simulate and experiment both existing and new aggregation algorithms, optimized for wireless heterogeneous communication channels that can be deployed in industrial environments. In order to illustrate the merits of the proposed testbed, we also describe its use in the performance assessment of two aggregation algorithms: Linux Bonding Driver and Multipath TCP.