LEAP: A latency control protocol for multi-path data delivery with pre-defined QoS guarantees

Wireless Gigabit networks based on the 5G New Radio and WiGig standards are expected to enable new throughput-intensive applications such as Virtual/Augmented Reality, high-resolution video chats, and remote control of unmanned terrestrial and aerial vehicles. However, the interactive nature of such applications implies the need for reliable and timely delivery of data flows, i.e., latency-constrained data throughput will become the key determinant of application Quality of Service (QoS). In this context, we propose a new transport-layer protocol called Latency-controlled End-to-End Aggregation Protocol (LEAP) that enables an explicit enforcement of pre-defined QoS targets for an application data flow by jointly controlling its delivery throughput, latency and reliability. According to the LEAP protocol, the sender splits a QoS-constraint data flow into multiple subflows that are delivered in parallel over independent radio access technologies. Stochastic forecasting of the latency-constrained capacity of each path is used for throughput-maximizing congestion control, while cross-path payload encoding is used for controlling the minimum probability of timely data delivery within a pre-defined deadline. When compared with leading state-of-the-art transport protocols in live networks, LEAP exhibits a superior capacity to reliably provide stable throughput and probabilistic delay guarantees, both in wired and wireless scenarios.