An Implementation and Evaluation of MPTCP-based 5G ATSSS
Reo Kudo, Shunji Aoyagi, Kien Nguyen, Hiroo Sekiya
The 20th International Conference on Multimedia Information Technology and Applications (MITA 2024), July, 2024. [pdf document]

<Abstract>

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which oversees the standardization of 5G, is exploring Access Traffic Steering, Switching, and Splitting (ATSSS). ATSSS facilitates multi-connectivity by concurrently utilizing both 3GPP access networks (e.g., 5G and LTE) and non-3GPP access networks (e.g., Wi-Fi), thereby enhancing throughput and fault tolerance. Implementing and evaluating ATSSS in real systems is crucial. In this study, we implement ATSSS using Multipath TCP (MPTCP). Our implementation requires the User Plane Function (UPF) in the 5G core network and a mobile device to act as an MPTCP proxy and MPTCP-capable device, respectively. We utilized free5GC and UERANSIM to realize the 3GPP access in a 5G network, while the non-3GPP access was provided by a Wi-Fi network. Our evaluations confirmed throughput improvements with MPTCP compared to single-path TCP. Additionally, we assessed the performance of four MPTCP congestion controls (balia, lia, olia, and wvegas), with lia demonstrating the best performance.