On limiting Delay and Jitter characteristics at application-layer of Multi-connected Systems

This paper addresses the challenge of limiting the delay and jitter characteristics in a communication system under a multi-connectivity setup. We consider an end-to-end system where the traffic source is connected to the network via multiple wireless interfaces and the application is sensitive to the perceived delay and jitter. We consider both the delay and jitter characteristics for each individual link with a varying degree of channel condition and scheduling requirements. Several challenges are identified for the application responsible for splitting and aggregating the traffic. In this system there is no cellular network coordination for the interface association to different available cellular base stations. The paper provides simulation and empirical results along with analytical models for understanding the implications of jitter and delay parameters in multi-connectivity setup. The work proposes a method to select the received packets such that both delay and jitter are limited in order to improve the overall system performance.