Decoupled TCP extension for VLC hybrid network

In recent years, visible light communication (VLC), considered as a compelling technology to solve the spectrumproblemoftraditional radiofrequency (RF)communication,hasattractedattentioninscientificandindustrial communities. However, for a variety of reasons, the designoftheVLCuplinkschemehasbecomeasignificantly challenging problem. In this paper, in order to address the preceding problem, we propose a novel decoupled TCPextension protocol for a VLC hybrid network. Different from regular TCP protocol, decoupling operation to TCP transmission in our new protocol can break through TCP’s limitationtoaunidirectionallinkandallowuserstofullyutilize network resources in a VLC hybrid network consisting of a VLC downlink and a complementary uplink. Furthermore, today most hosts are equipped with several interfaces, so we combine decoupled TCP (DETCP) with multipath TCP (MPTCP)and extendDETCPtoa multipath communication situation. Using several links simultaneously ensures more efficient and reliable data transmission in a VLC network. BasedonourimplementationoftheLinuxkernel,ourexperimental results show that our protocol can effectively accomplish the decouple work and achieve high throughput. In addition, several factors that influence the performance are analyzed based on our measurement results.