milliProxy: a TCP Proxy Architecture for 5G mmWave Cellular Systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces milliProxy, a TCP proxy architecture designed for 5G mmWave systems, which enhances TCP performance by leveraging network information to adapt to high-frequency link dynamics without requiring sender modifications.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel TCP proxy architecture for 5G mmWave networks that improves throughput and latency by utilizing gNB information, without changing remote sender protocols.

Findings

Significant throughput improvements over standard TCP.

Reduced latency in mmWave link transitions.

Effective adaptation to high bandwidth fluctuations.

Abstract

TCP is the most widely used transport protocol in the internet. However, it offers suboptimal performance when operating over high bandwidth mmWave links. The main issues introduced by communications at such high frequencies are (i) the sensitivity to blockage and (ii) the high bandwidth fluctuations due to Line of Sight (LOS) to Non Line of Sight (NLOS) transitions and vice versa. In particular, TCP has an abstract view of the end-to-end connection, which does not properly capture the dynamics of the wireless mmWave link. The consequence is a suboptimal utilization of the available resources. In this paper we propose a TCP proxy architecture that improves the performance of TCP flows without any modification at the remote sender side. The proxy is installed in the Radio Access Network, and exploits information available at the gNB in order to maximize throughput and minimize latency.