Multipath TCP subflow establishment and control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9948725-B2
Application number	US-201615253441-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2016
Priority date	Jun 6, 2013
Publication date	Apr 17, 2018
Grant date	Apr 17, 2018

Abstract

Techniques for electronic devices to control a multipath transmission control protocol (MPTCP) connection. An MPTCP connection between two endpoints may be established. The MPTCP connection may include at least one MPTCP subflow. At least one of the endpoints may be configured to act as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection. The master may perform one or more control operations on the MPTCP connection, while if one of the endpoints is not a master, that endpoint may not perform control operations on the MPTCP connection. The control operations may include initiating or establishing new MPTCP subflows or modifying a priority level of one or more MPTCP subflows of the MPTCP connection.

First claim

We claim:

1. An electronic device, comprising:
one or more network interfaces; and
a processing element operably coupled to the one or more network interfaces;
wherein the processing element and the one or more network interfaces are configured to:
establish a multipath transmission control protocol (MPTCP) connection with a remote endpoint, wherein the MPTCP connection comprises at least a first MPTCP subflow,
receive a TCP SYN message comprising a multipath header option from the remote endpoint, wherein the multipath header option comprises a flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection,
wherein receiving the TCP SYN message comprising the multipath header option with the flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection set configures the remote endpoint as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection; and
transmit a TCP SYN ACK message comprising a multipath header option to the remote endpoint in response to the TCP SYN message,
wherein if the multipath header option transmitted to the remote endpoint comprises a set flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection, the electronic device is also configured as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection, and
wherein if the multipath header option transmitted to the remote endpoint comprises an unset flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection, the electronic device is configured as a slave with respect to the MPTCP connection.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein being configured as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection enables the master to establish a second MPTCP subflow of the MPTCP connection, and
wherein being configured as a slave with respect to the MPTCP connection prevents the slave from establishing a second MPTCP subflow of the MPTCP connection.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein being configured as a slave with respect to the MPTCP connection prevents the slave from promoting or demoting a priority level of the first MPTCP subflow.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein the one or more network interfaces comprise one or more wireless network interfaces,
wherein the remote endpoint is configured to act as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection associated with the one or more wireless network interfaces.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein the one or more network interfaces comprise one or more wired network interfaces,
wherein the electronic device is configured to act as a slave with respect to the MPTCP connection corresponding the one or more wired network interfaces for which the remote endpoint is configured to act as the master.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein to establish the MPTCP connection with the remote endpoint, the processing element and the one or more network interfaces are further configured to:
receive a message from the remote endpoint declaring a master status or a slave status for the remote endpoint with respect to the MPTCP connection.

7. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein to establish the MPTCP connection with the remote endpoint, the processing element and the one or more network interfaces are further configured to:
transmit, to the remote endpoint, a TCP SYN message comprising a multipath header option including a flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection, the TCP SYN message configuring the electronic device as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein to establish the MPTCP connection with the remote endpoint, the processing element and the one or more network interfaces are further configured to:
receive a TCP SYN_ACK message comprising a multipath header option from the remote endpoint,
wherein when the multipath header option from the remote endpoint comprises a set flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection, the remote endpoint is also configured as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection,
wherein if the multipath header option from the remote endpoint comprises an unset flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection, the remote endpoint is configured as a slave with respect to the MPTCP connection.

9. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein being configured as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection enables the master to promote or demote a priority level of the first MPTCP subflow.

10. An apparatus, comprising a processing element configured to cause a wireless device to:
initiate a multipath transmission control protocol (MPTCP) connection with a remote endpoint;
transmit, to the remote endpoint, a TCP SYN message comprising a multipath header option including a flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection, the TCP SYN message configuring the wireless device as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection;
receive a TCP SYN_ACK message comprising a multipath header option from the remote endpoint
wherein when the multipath header option from the remote endpoint comprises a set flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection, the remote endpoint is also configured as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection, and
wherein if the multipath header option from the remote endpoint comprises an unset flag for declaring controllership of the MPTCP connection, the remote endpoint is configured as a slave with respect to the MPTCP connection; and
perform one or more control operations on the MPTCP connection based at least in part on being configured to act as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection, wherein the one or more control operations comprise one or more of:
establishing a new MPTCP subflow between the wireless device and the remote endpoint; or
modifying a priority level of an MPTCP subflow between the wireless device and the remote endpoint,

wherein when the remote endpoint is not also configured to act as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection, the remote endpoint does not perform control operations on the MPTCP connection.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing element is further configured to cause the wireless device to:
transmit data to the remote endpoint over a first MPTCP subflow of the MPTCP connection, wherein the first MPTCP subflow is designated as an active subflow;
determine that transmitting data over the first MPTCP subflow is unsuccessful;
transmit an indication to the remote endpoint to promote a second MPTCP subflow of the MPTCP connection from a backup subflow to an active subflow based at least in part on determining that transmitting data over the first MPTCP subflow is unsuccessful; and
transmit the data to the remote endpoint over the second MPTCP subflow.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 ,
wherein the remote endpoint is configured to transmit data to the wireless device over an MPTCP subflow on which the wireless device most recently transmitted data based on the wireless device being configured to act as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 ,
wherein the wireless device includes at least one wireless network interface, and
wherein the wireless device is configured to act as a master with respect to all MPTCP connections based at least in part on the at least one wireless network interface.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 ,
wherein the wireless device is configured to act as a master with respect to the MPTCP connection based at least in part on dynamically asserting master status as part of establishing the MPTCP connection with the remote endpoint.

15. A non-transitory computer accessible memory medium, comprisi

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Biswas Anumita
• Graessley Joshua V

Classifications

• H04L69/14

  Multichannel or multilink protocols · CPC title

• H04L45/24 Primary

  Multipath · CPC title

• H04L67/141 Primary

  Setup of application sessions (admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04W76/026

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W76/16

  Involving different core network technologies, e.g. a packet-switched [PS] bearer in combination with a circuit-switched [CS] bearer · CPC title