Implementation and evaluation of global router for Information-Centric Networking

Abstract: Context. A huge majority of the current Internet traffic is information dissemination. Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is a future networking paradigm that focuses on global level information dissemination. In ICN, the communication is defined in terms of requesting and providing Named Data Objects (NDO). NetInf is a future networking architecture based on Information-Centric Networking principles. Objectives. In this thesis, a global routing solution for ICN has been implemented. The authority part of NDO's name is mapped to a set of routing hints each with a priority value. Multiple NDOs can share the same authority part and thus the first level aggregation is provided. The routing hints are used to forward a request for a NDO towards a suitable copy of the NDO. The second level aggregation is achieved by aggregating high priority routing hints on low priority routing hints. The performance and scalability of the routing implementation are evaluated with respect to global ICN requirements. Furthermore, some of the notable challenges in implementing global ICN routing are identified. Methods. The NetInf global routing solution is implemented by extending NEC's NetInf Router Platform (NNRP). A NetInf testbed is built over the Internet using the extended NNRP implementation. Performance measurements have been taken from the NetInf testbed. The performance measurements have been discussed in detail in terms of routing scalability. Results. The performance measurements show that hop-by-hop transport has significant impact on the overall request forwarding. A notable amount of time is taken for extracting and inserting binary objects such as routing hints at each router. Conclusions. A more suitable hop-by-hop transport mechanism can be evaluated and used with respect to global ICN requirements. The NetInf message structure can be redefined so that binary objects such as routing hints can be transmitted more efficiently. Apart from that, the performance of the global routing implementation appears to be reasonable. As the NetInf global routing solution provides two levels of aggregation, it can be scalable as well.