An Implementation of Multipath Communication Using Data-plane Programming <Abstract> Dynamic management of network resources and route information using SDN is essential in 5G technology, the latest communication technology. However, in SDN, communication between the control plane and the data plane requires a specific protocol such as OpenFlow. Also, the dynamic network management by the SDN controller may cause the concentration of network load. Complex network control in a Wi-Fi network that takes into account various traffic flows by users requires difficult implementation and the cost of preparing SDN switches. Programming Protocol-independent Packet Processors (P4) has the data plane programmability, potentially solves SDN issues. Data plane programming with P4 allows the design of new packet forwarding methods, which are protocol-independent. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of implementing a multipath communication mechanism in a wireless network using data plane programming. First, we implement a P4-based multipath communication mechanism for UDP traffic. We then evaluate the mechanism on an emulated wireless network (i.e., using mininet-wifi). The results show that P4-based mechanisms can effectively achieve throughput aggregation with slightly higher latency variations. |