Internet DRAFT - draft-icnrg-flic
draft-icnrg-flic
ICNRG Working Group C. Tschudin
Internet-Draft University of Basel
Intended status: Informational C. Wood
Expires: December 27, 2017 University of California Irvine
June 25, 2017
File-Like ICN Collection (FLIC)
draft-icnrg-flic-00
Abstract
This document describes a bare bones "index table"-approach for
organizing a set of ICN data objects into a large, File-Like ICN
Collection (FLIC).
At the core of this collection is a so called manifest which acts as
the collection's root node. The manifest contains an index table
with pointers, each pointer being a hash value pointing to either a
final data block or another index table node.
Status of This Memo
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to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. FLIC as a Distributed Data Structure . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2. Design goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. File-Like ICN Collection (FLIC) Format . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Use of hash-valued pointers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2. Creating a FLIC data structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3. Reconstructing the collection's data . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4. Metadata in HashGroups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.5. Locating FLIC leaf and manifest nodes . . . . . . . . . . 9
3. Advanced uses of FLIC manifests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1. Seeking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2. Block-level de-duplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3. Growing ICN collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.4. Re-publishing a FLIC under a new name . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.5. Data Chunks of variable size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4. Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.1. Example Encoding for CCNx1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2. Example Encoding for NDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.2. URIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1. Introduction
1.1. FLIC as a Distributed Data Structure
One figure
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root manifest
.------------------------------------.
| optional name: |
| /icn/name/of/this/flic |
| |
| HashGroup (HG): |
| optional metadata: |
| overall digest, locator, etc. | .------.
| hash-valued data pointer -----------> | data |
| ... | `------' sub manifest
| hash-valued manifest pointer ------. .------------------.
| | `--> | ----->
| optional additional HashGroups .. | | ----->
| | `------------------'
| optional signature |
`------------------------------------'
Figure 1: A FLIC manifest and its directed acyclic graph
1.2. Design goals
o Copy the proven UNIX inode concept:
* index tables and memory pointers
o Adaption to ICN:
* hash values instead of block numbers, unique with high
probability
o Advantages (over non-manifest collections):
* single root manifest signature covers all elements of the full
collection, including intermediate sub manifests
* eliminate reference to chunk numbering schemata (hash values
only)
* supports block-level de-duplication (can lead to a directed
acyclic graph, or DAG, instead of a tree)
o Limitations
* All data leafs must be present at manifest creation time
(otherwise one cannot compute the pointers)
o Potential extensions (for study):
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* Enhance the manifest such that it can serve as a "database
cursor" or as a cursor over a time series, e.g. having entries
for "previous" and "next" collections.
2. File-Like ICN Collection (FLIC) Format
We first give the FLIC format in EBN notation:
ManifestMsg := Name? HashGroup+
HashGroup := MetaData? (SizeDataPtr | SizeManifestPtr)+
BlockHashGroup := MetaData? SizePerPtr (DataPtr | ManifestPtr)+
DataPtr := HashValue
ManifestPtr := HashValue
SizeDataPtr := Size HashValue
SizeManifestPtr := Size HashValue
SizePerPtr := Size
HashValue := See {{CCNxMessages}}
Size := OCTET[8]
MetaData := Property*
Property := Locator | OverallByteCount | OverallDataDigest | ...
Description:
o The core of a manifest is the sequence of "hash groups".
o A HashGroup (HG) consists of a sequence of "sized" data or
manifest pointers.
o A BlockHashGroup (BHG) consists of a sequence of data or manifest
pointers and a mandatory field that lists the total size of each
pointer. These HashGroups should be used when each pointer
(except the last) contains an identical number of application
bytes.
o Sizes are 64-bit unsigned integers.
o Data and manifest pointers are cryptographic HashValues encoded
according to the mechanism listed in [CCNxMessages].
Specifically, a HashValue specifies the cryptographic hash
algorithm and the actual digest.
o A HashGroup can contain a metadata section to help a reader to
optimize content retrieval (block size of leaf nodes, total size,
overall digest etc).
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o None of the ICN objects used in FLIC are allowed to be chunked,
including the (sub-) manifests. The smallest possible complete
manifest contains one HashGroup with one pointer to an ICN object.
2.1. Use of hash-valued pointers
FLIC's tree data structure is a generalized index table as it is
known from file systems. The pointers, which in an OS typically are
hard disk block numbers, are replaced by hash values of other ICN
objects. These ICN objects contain either other manifest nodes, or
leaf nodes. Leafs contain the actual data of the collection. Each
pointer explicitly indicates the amount of application data bytes
contained by the referred object. For example, the size of a data
pointer (to a leaf) represents the size of the leaf's content object
payload. Conversely, the size of a manifest pointer represents the
total size of all pointers contained in that manifest.
FLIC makes use of "nameless ICN object" where the network is tasked
with fetching an object based on its digest only. The interest for
such an object consists of a routing hint (locator) plus the given
digest value.
2.2. Creating a FLIC data structure
Starting from the original content, the corresponding byte array is
sliced into chunks. Each chunk is encoded as a data object,
according the ICN suite. For each resulting data object, the hash
value is computed. Groups of consecutive objects are formed and the
corresponding hash values collected in manifests, which are also
encoded. The hash values of the manifest objects replace the hash
values of the covered leaf nodes, thus reducing the number of hash
values. This process of hash value collection and replacement is
repeated until only one (root) manifest is left.
data1 <-- h1 - - - - - - - - - - - - \
data2 <-- h2 \ root mfst
... mfst 1 <-- hN+1 \ /
dataJ <-- hJ / mfst2 <-- hN+2
... /
dataN <-- hN - - - - - - /
Of special interest are "skewed trees" where a pointer to a manifest
may only appear as last pointer of (sub-) manifests. Such a tree
becomes a sequential list of manifests with a maximum of datapointers
per manifest packet. Beside the tree shape we also show this data
structure in form of packet content where D stands for a data pointer
and M is the hash of a manifest packet.
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data1 <-- h1 - - - - - - - - root mfst
... /
dataJ-1 <-- hJ-1 /
dataJ <-- hJ - - mfst1 <-- hN+1 /
... /
dataN <-- hN - /
DDDDDDM--> DDDDDDM--> ....... DDDDDDM--> DDDDDDD
A pseudo code description for producing a skewed tree follows below.
Input:
Application data D of size |D| (bytes)
Block size B (in bytes)
Output:
FLIC root node R
Algo:
n = number of leaf nodes = ceil(|D| / B)
k = number of (encoded) hash values fitting in a block of size B
H[1..n] = array of hash values
initialized with the data hash values for data chunks 1..n
While n > k do
a) create manifest M with a HashGroup
b) append to the HashGroup in M all hash values H[n-k+1..n]
c) n = n - k + 1
d) H[n] = manifest hash value of M
Create root manifest R with a HashGroup
Add to the HashGroup of R all hash values H[1..n]
Optionally: add name to R, sign manifest R
Output R
Obtaining with each manifest a maximum of data pointers is beneficial
for keeping the download pipeline filled. On the other hand, this
tree doesn't support well random access to arbitrary byte positions:
All data pointers coming before that offset have to be fetched before
locating the block of interest. For random access, binary trees
(where both subtrees of a node cover half of the content bytes) are
better suited. This can be combined with the "skewed tree" approach:
Manifests of intermediate nodes are filled with data pointers except
for the last two slots. The second last slot points to a manifest
for the "first half" of the left content, the last slots then points
to a manifest for the rest.
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root manifest= DDDDDMM
____________/ \_____
/ \
DDDDDMM DDDDDMM
_______/ \ _____/ \
/ \ / \
DDDDDDD DDDDDDD DDDDDDD DDDDDDD
This can be generalized to k-ary trees by allocating k pointers per
manifest instead of 2.
2.3. Reconstructing the collection's data
To fetch the data associated with a given FLIC (sub-) manifest, the
receiver sequentially works through all entries found in the
HashGroups and issues corresponding hash-based interests. In case of
a data hash pointer, the received content object is appended. In
case of a manifest hash pointer, this procedure is called recursively
for the received manifest. In other words, the collection data is
represented as the concatenation of data leaves from this _pre-order_
depth-first search (DFS) traversal strategy of the manifest tree.
(Currently, pre-order DFS is the only supported traversal strategy.)
This procedure works regardless of the tree's shape.
A pseudo code description for fetching is below.
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Input:
Root manifest R
Output:
Application data D
Algo:
global D = []
DFS(R)
Output D
where:
procedure DFS(M)
{
L:
H = sequence of hash valued pointers of M
foreach p in H do:
if p is a data pointer then
data = lookup(p)
Append data to D
else
M = lookup(p)
if p is last element in H then
goto L; // tail recursion
DFS(M)
}
The above DFS code works for FLIC manifest trees of arbitrary shape.
In case of a skewed tree, no recursion is needed and a single
instance of the DFS procedure suffices (i.e., one uses tail
recursion).
2.4. Metadata in HashGroups
In FLIC, metadata is linked to HashGroups and permits to inform the
FLIC retriever about properties of the data that is covered by this
hash group. Examples are overall data bytes or the overall hash
digest (this is akin to a Merkle hash). The intent of such metadata
is to enable an in-network retriever to optimize its operation -
other attributes linked to the collection as a whole (author,
copyright, etc.) is out of scope.
The list of available metadata is below.
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* Locator - provides a new routing hint (name prefix) where the
chunks of this hash group can be retrieved from. The default is to
use the locator of the root manifest.
* OverallByteCount - indicates the total number of *application
data bytes* contained in a single HashGroup. This does not include
bytes consumed by child manifests. This value is equal to the sum of
all pointer sizes contained in the HashGroup.
* OverallDataDigest - expresses the overall digest of all application
data contained in the HashGroup.
BlockHashGroups contain a mandatory piece of metadata called the
SizePerPtr. This value indicates the total number of application
bytes contained within each pointer in the hash group _except for the
last pointer._ Normal HashGroups do not require this piece of
metadata; Instead, each pointer includes their size explicitly.
2.5. Locating FLIC leaf and manifest nodes
The optional name of a manifest is a mere decoration and has no
locator functionality at all: All objects pointed to by a manifest
are retrieved from the location where the manifest itself was
obtained from (which is not necessarily its name). Example:
Objects:
manifest(name=/a/b/c, ptr=h1, ptr=hN) - has hash h0
nameless(data1) - has hash h1
...
nameless(dataN) - has hash hN
Query for the manifest:
interest(name=/the/locator/hint, implicitDigest=h0)
In this example, the name "/a/b/c" does NOT override "/the/locator/
hint" i.e., after having obtained the manifest, the retriever will
issue requests for
interest(name=/the/locator/hint, implicitDigest=h1)
...
interest(name=/the/locator/hint, implicitDigest=hN)
Using the locator metadata entry, this behavior can be changed:
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Objects:
manifest(name=/a/b/c,
hashgroup(loc=/x/y/z, ptr=h1)
hashgroup(ptr=h2) - has hash h0
nameless(data1) - has hash h1
nameless(data2) - has hash h2
Queries:
interest(name=/the/locator/hint, implicitDigest=h0)
interest(name=/x/y/z, implicitDigest=h1)
interest(name=/the/locator/hint, implicitDigest=h2)
3. Advanced uses of FLIC manifests
The FLIC mechanics has uses cases beyond keeping together a set of
data objects, such as: seeking, block-level de-duplication, re-
publishing under a new name, growing ICN collections, and supporting
FLICs with different block sizes.
3.1. Seeking
Fast seeking (without having to sequentially fetch all content) works
by skipping over entries for which we know their size. The following
expression shows how to compute the byte offset of the data pointed
at by pointer P_i, offset_i. In this formula, let P_i represent the
Size value of the i-th pointer.
offset_i = \sum_{i = 1}^{i - 1} P_i.size
With this offset, seeking is done as follows:
Input: seek_pos P, a FLIC manifest with a hash group having N entries
Output: pointer index i and byte offset o, or out-of-range error
Algo:
offset = 0
for i in 1..N do
if (P < P_i.size)
return (i, P - offset)
offset += P_i.size
return out-of-range
Seeking in a BlockHashGroup is different since offsets can be quickly
computed. This is because the size of each pointer P_i except the
last is equal to the SizePerPtr value. For a BlockHashGroup with N
pointers, OverallByteCount D, and SizePerPointer L, the size of P_i
is equal to the following:
D - ((i - 1) * L)
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In a BlockHashGroup with k pointers, the size of P_k is equal to:
D - L * (k - 1)
Using these, the seeking algorithm can be thus simplified to the
following:
Input: seek_pos P, a FLIC manifest with a hash group having
OverallByteCount S and SizePerPointer L.
Output: pointer index i and byte offset o, or out-of-range error
Algo:
if (P > S)
return out-of-range
i = floor(P / L)
if (i > N)
return out-of-range # bad FLIC encoding
o = P mod L
return (i, o)
Note: In both cases, if the pointer at position i is a manifest
pointer, this algorithm has to be called once more, seeking to
seek_pos o inside that manifest.
3.2. Block-level de-duplication
Consider a huge file, e.g. an ISO image of a DVD or program in binary
form, that had previously been FLIC-ed but now needs to be patched.
In this case, all existing encoded ICN chunks can remain in the
repository while only the chunks for the patch itself is added to a
new manifest data structure, as is shown in the picture below. For
example, the venti [1] archival file system of Plan9 uses this
technique.
old_mfst - - > h1 --> oldData1 <-- h1 < - - new_mfst
\ - > h2 --> oldData2 <-- h2 < - - /
\ replace3 <-- h5 < - -/
\- > h3 --> oldData3 /
\ > h4 --> oldData4 <-- h4 < - /
3.3. Growing ICN collections
A log file, for example, grows over time. Instead of having to re-
FLIC the grown file it suffices to construct a new manifest with a
manifest pointer to the old root manifest plus the sequence of data
hash pointers for the new data (or additional sub-manifests if
necessary). Note that this tree will not be skewed (anymore).
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old data < - - - mfst_old <-- h_old - - mfst_new
/
new data1 <-- h_1 - - - - - - - - -/
new data2 /
... /
new dataN <-- h_N - - - - - - - -/
3.4. Re-publishing a FLIC under a new name
It can happen that a publisher's namespace is part of a service
provider's prefix. When switching provider, the publisher may want
to republish the old data under a new name. This can easily be
achieved with a single nameless root manifest for the large FLIC plus
arbitrarily many per-name manifests (which are signed by whomever
wants to publish this data):
data < - nameless_mfst() <-- h < - mfst(/com/parc/east/the/flic)
< - mfst(/com/parc/west/old/the/flic)
< - mfst(/internet/archive/flic234)
Note that the hash computation (of h) only requires reading the
nameless root manifest, not the entire FLIC.
This example points out the problem of HashGroups having locator
metadata elements: A retriever would be urged to follow these hints
which are "hardcoded" deep inside the FLIC but might have become
outdated. We therefore recommend to name FLIC manifests only at the
highest level (where these names have no locator function). Child
nodes in a FLIC manifest should not be named as these names serve no
purpose except retrieving a sub-tree's manifest by name, if would be
required.
3.5. Data Chunks of variable size
If chunks do not have regular (block) sizes, the HashGroup can be
used to still convey to a reader the length of the chunks at the
manifest level. (This can be computed based on the size of pointers,
but the metadata field makes this determination simpler.) Example
use cases would be chunks each carrying a single ASCII line as
entered by a user or a database with variable length records mapped
to chunks.
M = (manifest
(hashgroup((metadata(SizePerPtr=4096)) (dataptr=h1))
(hashgroup((metadata(SizePerPtr=1500)) (dataptr=h2))
...
)
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4. Encoding
We express the packet encoding of manifests in a symbolic expression
style in order to show the TLV structure and the chosen type values.
In this notation, a TLV's type is a combination of "SymbolicName/
Tvalue", Length is not shown and Values are sub-expressions.
Moreover, we populate the data structure with all possible entries
and omit repetition.
4.1. Example Encoding for CCNx1.0
[FIXED_HEADER OCTET[8]]
(ManifestMsg/T_MANIFEST
(Name/T_NAME ...)
(HashGroup/T_HASHGROUP
(MetaData/T_HASHGROUP_METADATA
(HGLocator/T_HASHGROUP_METADATA_LOCATOR (T_NAME ...))
(HGOverallByteCount/T_HASHGROUP_METADATA_BYTECOUNT INT)
(HGOverallDataDigest/T_HASHGROUP_METADATA_DATADIGEST OCTET[32])
)
(SizeDataPtr/T_HASHGROUP_SIZEDATAPTR OCTET[8] (T_HASH ...))
(SizeMfstPtr/T_HASHGROUP_SIZEMANIFESTPTR OCTET[8] (T_HASH ...))
)
(BlockHashGroup/T_BLOCKHASHGROUP
(MetaData/T_HASHGROUP_METADATA (...))
(DataPtr/T_HASHGROUP_DATAPTR OCTET[32] (T_HASH ...))
(MfstPtr/T_HASHGROUP_MANIFESTPTR OCTET[32] (T_HASH ...))
)
)
Interest: name is locator, use objHashRestriction as selector.
4.2. Example Encoding for NDN
The assigned NDN content type value for FLIC manifests is 1024
(0x400).
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(Data/0x6
(Name/0x7 ...)
(MetaInfo/0x14
(ContentType/0x18 0x0400)
)
(Content/0x15
(HashGroup/0xC0
(MetaInfo/0x14
(LocatorNm/0xC3 (NameComp/0x8 ...))
(OverallDataDigest/0xC4 OCTET[32])
(OverallByteCount/0xC5 INT)
)
(DataPtr/0xC1 OCTET[8] OCTET[32])
(MfstPtr/0xC2 OCTET[8] OCTET[32])
(SizeDataPtr/0xC3 OCTET[32])
(SizeMfstPtr/0xC4 OCTET[32])
)
)
(SignatureInfo/0x16 ...)
(SignatureValue/0x17 ...)
)
Interest: name is locator, use implicitDigest name component as
selector.
5. Security Considerations
None.
6. References
6.1. Normative References
[CCNxMessages]
PARC, ., LinkedIn, ., and . PARC, "CCNx Messages in TLV
Format", n.d., <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-
irtf-icnrg-ccnxmessages/>.
6.2. URIs
[1] http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/venti/venti.pdf
Authors' Addresses
Christian Tschudin
University of Basel
Email: christian.tschudin@unibas.ch
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Christopher A. Wood
University of California Irvine
Email: woodc1@uci.edu
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