NetworkWorld is reporting that Apple's iOS 7 may be the first instance of large-scale use of a new type of Internet protocol called multipath TCP, or MCTCP. Just what is MCTCP -- and what does it do -- you may ask? Here's what NetworkWorld's John Cox says:
Researchers have been working for years on creating "disruption tolerant" networks, which can automatically work around failures, sometimes multiple failures, and adapt to changing network conditions. Today TCP is a single path protocol: if that path should fail for any reason, the session ends, and the connection has to be re-established.
By contrast, MCTCP is a TCP extension that enables the simultaneous use of several IP addresses
