Subject: [Tsvwg] Computer Communications: Special Issue on Concurrent Multipath Transfer

From: "Paul D. Amer" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:24:19 -0500

The following special issue of Computer Communications
has just been published:

    Volume 30, Issue 17 (30 November 2007)
    Special Issue Concurrent Multipath Transport
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/5624-2007-999699982-672999

Dilip Sarkar
Department of Computer Science, University of Miami

Paul D. Amer
Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware,

Randall Stewart
Operating System Development, Cisco Systems Inc.

Abstract:

Concurrent multipath transport (CmpTx) can aggregate bandwidth, improve 
reliability, enhance security, and boost Quality of Service (QoS). For 
delivery of bandwidth-demanding video and multimedia over the Internet, 
the application layer already has used CmpTx by establishing multiple 
connections to the transport layer. This technique is especially useful 
for bandwidth-limited wireless and sensor networks where (i) the 
bandwidth of a single channel is insufficient for a multimedia 
application, and (ii) the transport layer provides CmpTx to the 
application layer for necessary bandwidth aggregation. With the advent 
of Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) – a multihoming transport 
layer protocol – prospects for CmpTx research from the transport layer 
have expanded. Since SCTP’s inherent multihoming enables establishment 
of several network-layer connections between two end hosts via a single 
SCTP association, SCTP provides a common ground for CmpTx researchers. 
Multiple transport-layer connection establishment and termination 
sections from the SCTP standard are widely used by the CmpTx research 
community; they focus their attention to transport functionality for 
creating novel concurrent transport layer protocols.

The intent of this special issue is to bring together state-of-the-art 
research results in CmpTx for better and wider understanding of its 
potential and scope. The papers in this issue illustrate research 
pertaining to application, session, transport, network, and data-link 
layers.