Proxy Path Scheduling and Erasure Reconstruction for Low Delay mmWave Communication

In 5G and future cellular systems, use of multiple millimeter-wave (mmWave) links in parallel can enable interactive applications that demand consistent low delays with very high data rates. In previous work we introduced a mmWave multipath proxy that preemptively manages a set of mmWave paths to guarantee a steady data rate with high confidence. Here we explore the impact choice of packet sending path has on packet delay in this dynamic system, as well as the potential benefits erasure reconstruction codes (ERC) may provide in mitigating packet reordering delays at the receiver. We find that capacity aware scheduling improves packet delay, but that improvements diminish relative to the staleness of the capacity knowledge. ERC almost completely eliminates head-of-line blocking delays at the receiver, but any benefit is diminished by additional queueing delays induced by parity packets, unless they are selectively sent according to available capacity.