Internet DRAFT - draft-paik-icn-challenges
draft-paik-icn-challenges
ICN Research Group E. Paik
Internet-Draft KT
Expires: January 6, 2013 P. Mahadevan
PARC
M. Jang
Samsung
E. Cho
SNU
July 5, 2012
Benefits and Research Challenges of Content-Centric Networking
draft-paik-icn-challenges-00.txt
Abstract
The objective of ICN RG is to produce documents such as a survey of
diverse approaches, problem statement, and reference scenario. One
of the ICN approaches is CCN (Content-Centric Networking). This
document provides a qualitative analysis of CCN in terms of its
technical features and the resulting benefits as well as component
technologies.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Technical Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1. Directly Named Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2. Location Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.3. Content-Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.1. Network Efficiency and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2. Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.3. CAPEX and OPEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.3. URL References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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1. Introduction
The objective of ICN RG is to produce documents describing different
approaches, problem statement, and reference scenario. One of the
ICN approaches is CCN (Content-Centric Networking).
This document provides the key benefits and research challenges of
CCN.
2. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
The following terms are defined.
o Information-Centric Networking: Information-Centric Networking
(ICN) is a new networking paradigm that shifts the emphasis from
endpoints to addressing content directly, thereby enabling simple,
robust and efficient content distribution in the network.
o Content-Centric Networking: Content-Centric Networking (CCN), is a
new network architecture that embraces ICN principles of direct
content addressing. CCN architecture builds up on the
fundamentals of content, names and security.
o Content Delivery Network: CDN refers to Content Delivery/
Distribution Network. This document distinguishes CCN from CDN as
follows: CCN protocol is a network layer architecture while CDN is
a content distribution system that operates as an application
layer service in today's Internet architecture.
o Interest: Interest is a CCN packet type that is sent request
content in a CCN network.
o Content Object: In a CCN network, content that is requested by a
client travels back in the form of a content object.
3. Technical Features
The basic CCN operation mechanism is interest/content object
exchange. Nodes wishing to receive content issue an Interest with a
prefix describing the data (content) they desire. These interest
packets are routed towards known content sources or producers, and as
they are routed through the network any intermediate node can satisfy
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the interest with matching content objects from its cache. Each
individual content object is retrieved using a single interest. The
content returned is verified to be sure it is what was asked for,
unmodified and published by a trusted publisher.
The key features of CCN include directly named content, location
independence, and content-level protection.
3.1. Directly Named Content
In CCN, content is named and addressed directly unlike today networks
where the emphasis is on naming end hosts. Named content travels as
content objects in a CCN network. Content objects can be thought of
as named data packets.
3.2. Location Independence
CCN decouples content name from content location. Thus, there is no
need to translate from the desired content to a location in the
network. This feature allows CCN to take advantage of widespread
caches and storage deployed in the network.
3.3. Content-Protection
Individual pieces of content are protected rather than securing the
connection between the end hosts as implemented in today's Internet.
Each content object is signed by its publisher and can optionally be
encrypted. This feature of protecting individual content objects
allows content to be cached at any location in the network.
4. Benefits
The new CCN architecture offers several significant benefits with
respect to performance, cost, and ease of new application development
and deployment as compared to traditional networks in use today. We
address each of these in more detail in the rest of this section.
4.1. Network Efficiency and Performance
Removing the dependency on location-based content retrieval allows
CCN to reduce resource consumption and make the network utilization
more efficient through caching. Content requestors ask for the
content by name, and any CCN node along the path from the requestor
to the publisher that has a matching content object in its cache can
satisfy the request.
Further, CCN nodes are not restricted to contacting a single source
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to receive content. They may request content from a set of sources,
and can also choose the most responsive content source in order to
minimize content retrieval times.
4.2. Security
CCN focuses on securing individual content pieces - each content
object is digitally signed and contains information about its
publisher. Content objects can optionally be encrypted as well. The
security model in CCN allows applications and users to determine
which publishers to trust. Users can detect if an object has been
modified or tampered by a malicious party before it was delivered and
also be sure the publisher is one that it trusts to produce non-
malicious content.
Unlike today's networks that enforce security by securing the path
through which unsecured content travels, CCN allows data consumers to
trust the data independently of the path through which it was
obtained.
Additionally, by incorporating network-layer security for individual
content pieces, CCN frees applications and services from focusing on
securing content. This feature significantly reduces the development
cost as well as complexity of most applications, including security-
critical applications, such as banking services.
4.3. CAPEX and OPEX
CCN reduces CAPEX and OPEX for network operators.
As described in Section 4.1, CCN makes better utilization of the
network and reduces CAPEX on bandwidth by reducing redundant traffic
and peak-rate traffic.
Secondly, CCN reduces OPEX by providing automatic management of cache
with pull model of delivery. Thus, data automatically goes to where
it is requested. In comparison, CDN typically require manual
management of cache with push model where a content producer needs to
anticipate which contents will be highly popular, as well as which
clients will request a particular content, and push the desired data
closest to those clients.
Thirdly, CCN reduces OPEX by providing easy deployment of cache from
the viewpoint of network topology. CCN allows content to cached
closer to the users, including at CCN nodes at the network edge. CCN
caches can also be deployed on mobile devices and inside a service
provider's network. In contrast, CDN servers are typically topology-
restricted and can be deployed only in certain locations such as
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peering points.
Fourthly, CCN reduces OPEX by providing easy management and
configuration. CCN does not need additional protocols to optimize
the path, e.g., ALTO (Application Layer Traffic Optimization)
protocol. Path optimization and keeping track of dynamic network
conditions happens at the strategy layer in CCN - CCN has inherent
network support to route around bottleneck links as well as network
failures.
Finally, CCN reduces OPEX by providing the same path for content
requests (forward path) and response (reverse path), i.e., content
objects follow the reverse of the Interest path. This aspect really
helps in traffic engineering (in today's Internet architecture
forward and reverse packet paths need not be the same), e.g., QoS is
easier to implement in CCN networks.
5. Security Considerations
TBD
6. References
6.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
6.2. Informative References
[RFC6392] Alimi, R., Rahman, A., and Y. Yang, "A Survey of In-
Network Storage Systems", RFC 6392, October 2011.
6.3. URL References
[CCNx] "CCNx Home Page", <http://www.ccnx.org/>.
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Authors' Addresses
EunKyoung Paik
KT
Network Research and Development Lab. KT
17 Woomyeon-dong, Seocho-gu
Seoul 137-792
Korea
Phone: +82-2-526-5233
Fax: +82-2-526-5200
Email: eun.paik@kt.com
URI: http://mmlab.snu.ac.kr/~eun/
Priya Mahadevan
Palo Alto Research Center
3333 Coyote Hill Rd
Palo Alto CA 94304
USA
Phone: +1-650-812-4434
Fax: +1-650-812-4471
Email: priya.mahadevan@parc.com
URI: http://www.parc.com/priyamahadevan/
Myeong-Wuk Jang
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
San 14, Nongseo-dong, Giheung-gu
Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 446-712
Korea
Phone: +82-31-280-9624
Fax: +82-31-280-9569
Email: myeong.jang@samsung.com
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Eunsang Cho
Seoul National University
Multimedia and Mobile Communications Lab., Seoul National Univ.
1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu
Seoul 151-744
Korea
Phone: +82-2-880-1832
Fax: +82-2-872-2045
Email: escho@mmlab.snu.ac.kr
URI: http://mmlab.snu.ac.kr/~escho/
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