A Multipath Forwarding Algorithm Based-On Predictive Path Loss Rate for Real-Time Application

Delivery of real time streaming applications, such as voice over IP (VoIP), in packet switched networks is based on dividing the stream into packets and transferring each of the packets on an individual basis to the destination. To study the effect of packet dispersion on the quality of VoIP applications, we focus on the effect of the packet loss rate on the applications, and present a model in which packets of a certain session are dispersed over multiple paths based on the concept of predictive path loss rate (PPLR). The proposed PPLR strategy requires the dynamic prediction of loss levels over all available network paths. This predictive information is then used as an input to adjust the allocation proportion for next prediction period. Through simulations, we show that the proposed PPLR forwarding strategy provides significantly better performance than ECMP.