Managing Energy Consumption of Wireless Multipath TCP Connections Using Software-Defined Networking: A Review

Multipath transmission control protocol (MPTCP) has been established as an extension to the standard TCP to achieve efficient and uninterrupted communication simultaneously through multiple paths. It outperforms traditional TCP in terms of performance and reliability. On the other hand, the emergence of software-defined networking (SDN) has made a momentous change in traditional network management and control. It makes the networks programmable via a controller that manages the entire network. However, energy consumption represents a significant issue when using multihomed devices since most of the wireless devices used in emerging technologies such as Internet-of-things and fog computing are battery-powered. This paper aims to answer the question of whether the current literature addresses controlling the energy consumption of MPTCP connections using SDN. Thus, the paper reviews the current research works that target MPTCP energy consumption for wireless connections and the usage of SDN to manage those connections. Our review finds that energy efficiency remains an open research challenge while controlling it in multipath devices effectively by using SDN is not well explored in the literature.