The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a relatively recent general-purpose transport layer protocol for IP networks that has been introduced as a complement to the well-established TCP and UDP transport protocols. Although initially conceived for the transport of PSTN signaling messages over IP networks, the introduction of key features in SCTP, such as multihoming and multistreaming, has spurred considerable research interest surrounding SCTP and its applicability to different networking scenarios. This article aims to provide a detailed survey of one of these new features—multihoming—which, as it is shown, is the subject of evaluation in more than half of all published SCTP-related articles. To this end, the article first summarizes and organizes SCTP-related research conducted so far by developing a four-dimensional taxonomy reflecting the (1) protocol feature examined, (2) application area, (3) network environment, and (4) study approach. Over 430 SCTP-related publications have been analyzed and classified according to the proposed taxonomy. As a result, a clear perspective on this research area in the decade since the first protocol standardization in 2000 is given, covering both current and future research trends. On continuation, a detailed survey of the SCTP multihoming feature is provided, examining possible applications of multihoming, such as robustness, handover support, and loadsharing.

Peer Reviewed