Multipath satellite backbone

1. A method for providing a multipath satellite backbone, the method comprising:

creating sub-backbone flows over multipaths between a first peer and a second peer, wherein each of the sub-backbone flows is associated with one of the multipaths;

retrieving a policy corresponding to the first peer, the second peer and each of the multipaths;

receiving a transport metric for at least one of the multipaths;

calculating distribution weights for the sub-backbone flows based on the policy and the transport metric; and

splitting, based on the distribution weights and the policy, a network traffic between the first peer and the second peer over the sub-backbone flows,

wherein at least one of the multipaths is relayed by a satellite.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transport metric is selected from one or more of a carrier frequency band, a satellite constellation, an antenna, a carrier frequency, a gateway identification, an outdoor unit, a Packet Loss Rate (PLR), a Modulation and Coding (MODCOD) symbol rate, a MODCOD, a congestion level, an interface cost, a latency, a jitter, a signal strength, a transport layer queue depth, a transport layer queue latency or a link type.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the multipaths are relayed by the satellite.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

detecting, on one of the multipaths, a change in one or more of the transport metric or the policy; and

managing the sub-backbone flows based on the change.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the change indicates that one of the multipaths is unavailable and the managing comprises deleting a sub-backbone flow of the sub-backbone flows associated with the unavailable one of the multipaths.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the change indicates that one of the multipaths is available and the managing comprises creating a sub-backbone flow of the sub-backbone flows associated with the available one of the multipaths.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

creating a connection having a connection metric on the multipath satellite backbone; and

selecting, based on the connection metric, one or more of the sub-backbone flows to transport the network traffic for the connection.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining a change in the connection metric; and

selecting, based on the change, one or more of the sub-backbone flows to transport the network traffic for the connection.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the connection comprises a Performance-enhancing Proxy (PEP) connection.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the connection comprises a TCP spoof connection.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the selecting comprises selecting a plurality of sub-backbone flows from the sub-backbone flows and the method further comprises:

sending the network traffic for the connection by replicating the network traffic over the plurality of sub-backbone flows;

receiving the network traffic for the connection over the plurality of sub-backbone flows; and

maintaining an integrity of the received network traffic by discarding a duplicate of the received network traffic.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the connection metric indicates a jitter sensitive connection, the selecting comprises selecting one of sub-backbone flows from the sub-backbone flows.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the connection metric indicates a jitter insensitive connection, the selecting comprises selecting a plurality of sub-backbone flows from the sub-backbone flows and the method further comprises:

sending the network traffic for the connection by distributing the network traffic for the connection over the plurality of sub-backbone flows;

receiving the network traffic for the connection over the plurality of sub-backbone flows; and

maintaining an integrity of the received network traffic by maintaining a sequence of the received network traffic.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein the connection metric comprises one or more of a real-time connection indicator, a latency and jitter sensitivity, a bulk connection, an interactive connection, a protocol in use on the connection, a life expectancy and the like.

15. The method of claim 7 , wherein the splitting comprises flow-based differentiation and the connection is designated to use only one of the sub-backbone flows.

16. The method of claim 7 , wherein the splitting comprises flow-based differentiation and the connection is designated to use a plurality of the sub-backbone flows.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the policy is selected from one or more of a Fair Access Policy (FAP), over allocation, an allowed MODCOD, or a Quality of Service requirement.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the creating the sub-backbone flows comprises creating the sub-backbone flows based on a predictive analysis of historical data of at least one of the multipaths.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

measuring a performance metric of the multipath satellite backbone; and

managing the sub-backbone flows based on the performance metric.