Performance Analysis of Multipath TCP over FSO/mmWave Vehicular Networks

Multipath TCP (MPTCP) is a crucial protocol in 5G/6G wireless mobile networks, offering enhanced end-to-end throughput performance by capitalizing on multiple-path connectivity. In the context of vehicular networks, the increasing demand for high MPTCP throughput and ubiquitous connectivity necessitates the simultaneous utilization of terrestrial and space infrastructures. In this respect, we introduce a comprehensive analytical framework of MPTCP for vehicular networks exploiting the last-mile access provided by the terrestrial base station (BS)-based millimeter wave (mmWave) and high-altitude platforms (HAP)-based free-space optical (FSO) links. Notably, the analytical framework enables the assessment of MPTCP throughput/goodput performance under the impact of transmission errors and buffer overflow/reordering at the last-mile mmWave/FSO access. Numerical results provide insights into the MPTCP performance over FSO/mmWave vehicular networks and highlight a substantial throughput gain over the state-of-the-art MPTCP networks.