When should we surf the mobile web using both wifi and cellular?

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate when to browse the web using WiFi and cellular simultaneously on mobile devices. Our observation, based on empirical measurements, is that mobile web may not always benefit from multipath, which motivates a cost-benefit analysis. However, it is challenging to analyze the benefits (i.e., improved user experience) and costs (e.g., energy consumption) of web browsing, due to HTTP's resource fetching model. We propose to use server push, a standard feature in HTTP/2, to provide an ideal framework for the cost-benefit analysis. We then design a practical system that reduces resource footprint for mobile web over multipath by providing adaptive multipath support.