MP-H2: A Client-only Multipath Solution for HTTP/2

MP-H2 is a client-only, HTTP-based multipath solution. It enables an HTTP client to fetch content (an HTTP object) over multiple network paths such as WiFi and cellular on smartphones. Compared to MPTCP, MP-H2 offers several key advantages including server transparency, middlebox compatibility, and friendliness to CDN, anycast, and load balancing. MP-H2 strategically splits the file into byte range requests sent over multipath, and dynamically balances the workload across all paths. Furthermore, MP-H2 leverages new features in HTTP/2 including stream multiplexing, flow control, and application-layer PING to boost the performance. MP-H2 also supports multi-homing where each path contacts a different CDN server for enhanced performance. Evaluations show that MP-H2 offers only slightly degraded performance (6% on average) while being much easier to deploy compared to MPTCP. Compared to other state-of-the-art HTTP multipath solutions, MP-H2 reduces the file download time by up to 47%, and increases the DASH video streaming bitrate by up to 44%.