Evaluating a multicast backhaul protocol for reliable low latency communication over mmWave links

Millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless links are an important part of next generation cellular networks because of the abundant available bandwidth in this frequency band. However, these frequencies are highly susceptible to blockages due to obstructions in the signal path, making it difficult to reliably offer high-data-rate, low-latency service over mmWave links. In this work, we demonstrate a prototype of a previously proposed multicast backhaul architecture, which takes advantage of the excess capacity on mmWave backhaul links and multi-connectivity support at user devices to mitigate the latency associated with frequent blockages on the mmWave access network. The testbed implementation of this protocol overcomes some limitations of a previous mininet- and P4-based prototype, allowing us to run real-time experiments with live application traffic and evaluate the delay benefits of the proposed architecture.