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Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs)

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A special issue of Future Internet (ISSN 1999-5903). This special issue belongs to the section "Internet of Things".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2023) | Viewed by 24442

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. José Carlos López Ardao

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Guest Editor

atlanTTic Research Center for Telecommunications Technologies, Universidade de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
Interests: green networking; virtualization of network functions and services; optimization of communication networks; ICNs & NDN
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Miguel Rodríguez Pérez

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Guest Editor

atlanTTic Research Center for Telecommunications Technologies, Universidade de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
Interests: green networking; virtualization of network functions and services; ICNs & NDN
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Sergio Herrería Alonso

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Guest Editor

atlanTTic Research Center for Telecommunications Technologies, Universidade de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
Interests: green networking; quality of service in the internet; performance analysis of computer networks; ICNs & NDN
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The great success of the Internet has been essentially based on the simplicity and versatility of its TCP/IP architecture, as it imposes almost no restrictions on either the underlying network technology or on the data being transmitted. In essence, applications built on top of TCP/IP get a point-to-point channel that can be used to transmit arbitrary information.

This approach has served quite satisfactorily for many years, but it is no longer well suited to some of the new communication paradigms now being used on the Internet. Nowadays, most applications running on top of the Internet are no longer interested in using a point-to-point channel to exchange traffic between two endpoints. In contrast, what they really want is to obtain some piece of information that is available in the network somewhere. The current use of load balancers and cache overlay networks is an interim solution to address this mismatch between the network communication model and the needs of applications, but such a solution suffers from significant shortcomings. Information-Centric Networks (ICNs), and in particular Named Data Networking (NDN) and CCNx, offer a service where users can directly obtain pieces of information, regardless of their location. This service is more suited to current network uses, and can also be used to provide the traditional point-to-point communication service if so desired.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to present the most recent advances, or comprehensive reviews, relating to ICNs. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Design and implementation of global and local ICN approaches
Routing and forwarding in ICN
Software design and architectures to support ICN
Analysis of ICN protocols and applications
Experiences with ICN implementations
ICN network management
ICN security and privacy
ICN solutions for mobile or constrained environments (5G networks, satellite networks, vehicular networking…)
SDN-based ICN implementation approaches
Migration strategies from host-centric TCP/IP networks
ICN in industrial settings
Edge-networking and ICN convergence
ICN and the Internet of Things
Transport and congestion control for ICN architectures
Energy efficient networking in ICN

Prof. Dr. José Carlos López Ardao
Prof. Dr. Miguel Rodríguez Pérez
Prof. Dr. Sergio Herrería Alonso
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Internet is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

ICN
NDN
CCNx
IoT
5G
SDN
future internet architectures
new communication paradigms

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

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5 pages, 212 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs)

by José Carlos López-Ardao, Miguel Rodríguez-Pérez and Sergio Herrería-Alonso

Future Internet 2023, 15(12), 392; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15120392 - 01 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1361

Abstract

The great success of the Internet has been essentially based on the simplicity and versatility of its TCP/IP architecture, which imposes almost no restrictions on either the underlying network technology or on the data being transmitted [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

20 pages, 493 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intelligent Caching with Graph Neural Network-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning on SDN-Based ICN

by Jiacheng Hou, Tianhao Tao, Haoye Lu and Amiya Nayak

Future Internet 2023, 15(8), 251; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15080251 - 26 Jul 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1385

Abstract

Information-centric networking (ICN) has gained significant attention due to its in-network caching and named-based routing capabilities. Caching plays a crucial role in managing the increasing network traffic and improving the content delivery efficiency. However, caching faces challenges as routers have limited cache space while the network hosts tens of thousands of items. This paper focuses on enhancing the cache performance by maximizing the cache hit ratio in the context of software-defined networking–ICN (SDN-ICN). We propose a statistical model that generates users’ content preferences, incorporating key elements observed in real-world scenarios. Furthermore, we introduce a graph neural network–double deep Q-network (GNN-DDQN) agent to make caching decisions for each node based on the user request history. Simulation results demonstrate that our caching strategy achieves a cache hit ratio 34.42% higher than the state-of-the-art policy. We also establish the robustness of our approach, consistently outperforming various benchmark strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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17 pages, 2054 KiB

Open AccessArticle

NDN-BDA: A Blockchain-Based Decentralized Data Authentication Mechanism for Vehicular Named Data Networking

by Ahmed Benmoussa, Chaker Abdelaziz Kerrache, Carlos T. Calafate and Nasreddine Lagraa

Future Internet 2023, 15(5), 167; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15050167 - 29 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1676

Abstract

Named Data Networking (NDN) is an implementation of Information-Centric Networking (ICN) that has emerged as a promising candidate for the Future Internet Architecture (FIA). In contrast to traditional networking protocols, NDN’s focus is on content, rather than the source of the content. NDN enables name-based routing and location-independent data retrieval, which gives NDN the ability to support the highly dynamic nature of mobile networks. Among other important features, NDN integrates security mechanisms and prioritizes protecting content over communication channels through cryptographic signatures. However, the data verification process that NDN employs may cause significant delays, especially in mobile networks and vehicular networks. This aspect makes it unsuitable for time-critical and sensitive applications such as the sharing of safety messages. Therefore, in this work, we propose NDN-BDA, a blockchain-based decentralized mechanism that provides a faster and more efficient data authenticity mechanism for NDN-based vehicular networks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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18 pages, 4654 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Replica-Selection Algorithm Based on Transmission Completion Time Estimation in ICN

by Zhiyuan Wang, Hong Ni and Rui Han

Future Internet 2023, 15(4), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15040120 - 25 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1055

Abstract

As the Internet communication model changes from host-centric to content-centric, information-centric networking (ICN) as a new network architecture has received increasing attention. There are often multiple replicas of content in ICN, and how to reasonably utilize the characteristics of multiple replicas to further improve user experience is an important issue. In this paper, we propose a replica-selection algorithm, called the transmission completion time estimation (TCTE) algorithm. TCTE maintains the state of replica nodes in the domain with passive measurements in a limited domain of an enhanced name resolution system (ENRS), then estimates the transmission completion time of different replica nodes and selects the smallest one. When no replica is found in the ENRS domain, the nearest-replica algorithm will be used, so TCTE will not increase the traffic in the core network. Experiments show that TCTE not only effectively improves the user’s download rate and edge node throughput, reduces download rate fluctuations, reduces user download delay, and improves fairness, but also has universal applicability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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16 pages, 2276 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Multipath Transmission Scheme for Information-Centric Networking

by Yong Xu, Hong Ni and Xiaoyong Zhu

Future Internet 2023, 15(2), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15020080 - 17 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1400

Abstract

Due to the overload of IP semantics, the traditional TCP/IP network has a number of problems in scalability, mobility, and security. In this context, information-centric networking (ICN) is proposed to solve these problems. To reduce the cost of deployment and smoothly evolve, the ICN architecture needs to be compatible with existing IP infrastructure. However, the rigid underlying IP routing regulation limits the data transmission efficiency of ICN. In this paper, we propose a novel multipath transmission scheme by utilizing the characteristics and functions of ICN to enhance data transmission. The process of multipath transmission can be regarded as a service, and a multipath transmission service ID (MPSID) is assigned. By using the ICN routers bound to the MPSID as relay nodes, multiple parallel paths between the data source and the receiver are constructed. Moreover, we design a path management mechanism, including path selection and path switching. It can determine the initial path based on historical transmission information and switch to other optimal paths according to the congestion degree during transmission. The experimental results show that our proposed method can improve the average throughput and reduce the average flow completion time and the average chunk completion time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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12 pages, 1612 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Efficient Location-Based Forwarding Strategy for Named Data Networking and LEO Satellite Communications

by Pablo Iglesias-Sanuy, José Carlos López-Ardao, Miguel Rodríguez-Pérez, Sergio Herrería-Alonso, Andrés Suárez-González and Raúl F. Rodríguez-Rubio

Future Internet 2022, 14(10), 285; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14100285 - 29 Sep 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2347

Abstract

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are increasingly gaining attention as future global Internet providers. At the same time, named data networking (NDN) is a new data-centric architecture that has been recently proposed to replace the classic TCP/IP architecture since it is particularly well suited to the most common usage of the Internet nowadays as a content delivery network. Certainly, the use of NDN is especially convenient in highly dynamic network environments, such as those of next LEO constellations incorporating inter-satellite links (ISL). Among other native facilities, such as inbuilt security, NDN readily supports the mobility of clients, thus helping to overcome one of the main problems raised in LEO satellite networks. Moreover, thanks to a stateful forwarding plane with support for multicast transmission and inbuilt data caches, NDN is also able to provide a more efficient usage of the installed transmission capacity. In this paper, we propose a new location-based forwarding strategy for LEO satellite networks that takes advantage of the knowledge of the relative position of the satellites and the grid structure formed by the ISLs to perform the forwarding of NDN packets. So, forwarding at each node is done using only local information (node and destination locations), without the need of interchanging information between nodes, as is the case with conventional routing protocols. Using simulation, we show that the proposed forwarding strategy is a good candidate to promote the efficient and effective future use of the NDN architecture in LEO satellite networks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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18 pages, 6015 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Insights from the Experimentation of Named Data Networks in Mobile Wireless Environments

by Luís Gameiro, Carlos Senna and Miguel Luís

Future Internet 2022, 14(7), 196; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14070196 - 27 Jun 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1736

Abstract

The Information-Centric Network (ICN) paradigm has been touted as one of the candidates for the Internet of the future, where the Named Data Network (NDN) architecture is the one leading the way. Despite the large amount of works published in the literature targeting new implementations of such architecture, covering different network topologies and use cases, there are few NDN implementations in real networks. Moreover, most of these real-world NDN implementations, especially those addressing wireless and wired communication channels, are at a small scale, in laboratory environments. In this work, we evaluate the performance of an NDN-based implementation in a mobile wireless network, as part of a smart city infrastructure, making use of multiple wireless interfaces. We start by showing how we have implemented the NDN stack in current network nodes of the smart city infrastructure, following a hybrid solution where both TCP/IP and NDN paradigms can coexist. The implementation is evaluated in three scenarios, targeting different situations: mobility, the simultaneous use of different wireless interfaces and the network characteristics. The results show that our implementation works properly and insights about the correct NDN parameterization are derived. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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15 pages, 725 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Weighted-CAPIC Caching Algorithm for Priority Traffic in Named Data Network

by Leanna Vidya Yovita, Nana Rachmana Syambas and Ian Joseph Matheus Edward

Future Internet 2022, 14(3), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14030084 - 12 Mar 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2233

Abstract

Today, the internet requires many additional mechanisms or protocols to support various ever-growing applications. As a future internet architecture candidate, the Named Data Network (NDN) offers a solution that naturally fulfills this need. One of the critical components in NDN is cache. Caching in NDN solves bandwidth usage, server load, and service time. Some research about caching has been conducted, but improvements can be made. In this research, we derived the utility function of multiclass content to obtain the relationship between the class’s weight and cache hit ratio. Then, we formulated it into the Weighted-CAPIC caching algorithm. Our research shows that Weighted-CAPIC provides a higher cache hit ratio for the priority class and the whole system. This performance is supported while the algorithm still provides the same path-stretch value as Dynamic-CAPIC. The Weighted-CAPIC is suitable to used in mobile nodes due to its ability to work individually without having to coordinate with other nodes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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14 pages, 1081 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Controlling the Trade-Off between Resource Efficiency and User Satisfaction in NDNs Based on Naïve Bayes Data Classification and Lagrange Method

by Abdelkader Tayeb Herouala, Chaker Abdelaziz Kerrache, Benameur Ziani, Carlos T. Calafate, Nasreddine Lagraa and Abdou el Karim Tahari

Future Internet 2022, 14(2), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14020048 - 31 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2536

Abstract

This paper addresses the fundamental problem of the trade-off between resource efficiency and user satisfaction in the limited environments of Named Data Networks (NDNs). The proposed strategy is named RADC (Resource Allocation based Data Classification), which aims at managing such trade-off by controlling the system’s fairness index. To this end, a machine learning technique based on Multinomial Naïve Bayes is used to classify the received contents. Then, an adaptive resource allocation strategy based on the Lagrange utility function is proposed. To cache the received content, an adequate content placement and a replacement mechanism are enforced. Simulation at the system level shows that this strategy could be a powerful tool for administrators to manage the trade-off between efficiency and user satisfaction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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19 pages, 20268 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An In-Network Cooperative Storage Schema Based on Neighbor Offloading in a Programmable Data Plane

by Shoujiang Dang and Rui Han

Future Internet 2022, 14(1), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14010018 - 30 Dec 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2697

Abstract

In scientific domains such as high-energy particle physics and genomics, the quantity of high-speed data traffic generated may far exceed the storage throughput and be unable to be in time stored in the current node. Cooperating and utilizing multiple storage nodes on the forwarding path provides an opportunity for high-speed data storage. This paper proposes the use of flow entries to dynamically split traffic among selected neighbor nodes to sequentially amortize excess traffic. We propose a neighbor selection mechanism based on the Local Name Mapping and Resolution System, in which the node weights are computed by combing the link bandwidth and node storage capability, and determining whether to split traffic by comparing normalized weight values with thresholds. To dynamically offload traffic among multiple targets, the cooperative storage strategy implemented in a programmable data plane is presented using the relative weights and ID suffix matching. Evaluation shows that our proposed schema is more efficient compared with end-to-end transmission and ECMP in terms of bandwidth usage and transfer time, and is beneficial in big science. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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Review

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31 pages, 1560 KiB

Open AccessReview

Convergence of Information-Centric Networks and Edge Intelligence for IoV: Challenges and Future Directions

by Salahadin Seid Musa, Marco Zennaro, Mulugeta Libsie and Ermanno Pietrosemoli

Future Internet 2022, 14(7), 192; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14070192 - 25 Jun 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4662

Abstract

Recently the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has become a promising research area in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT), which enables vehicles to communicate and exchange real-time information with each other, as well as with infrastructure, people, and other sensors and actuators through various communication interfaces. The realization of IoV networks faces various communication and networking challenges to meet stringent requirements of low latency, dynamic topology, high data-rate connectivity, resource allocation, multiple access, and QoS. Advances in information-centric networks (ICN), edge computing (EC), and artificial intelligence (AI) will transform and help to realize the Intelligent Internet of Vehicles (IIoV). Information-centric networks have emerged as a paradigm promising to cope with the limitations of the current host-based network architecture (TCP/IP-based networks) by providing mobility support, efficient content distribution, scalability and security based on content names, regardless of their location. Edge computing (EC), on the other hand, is a key paradigm to provide computation, storage and other cloud services in close proximity to where they are requested, thus enabling the support of real-time services. It is promising for computation-intensive applications, such as autonomous and cooperative driving, and to alleviate storage burdens (by caching). AI has recently emerged as a powerful tool to break through obstacles in various research areas including that of intelligent transport systems (ITS). ITS are smart enough to make decisions based on the status of a great variety of inputs. The convergence of ICN and EC with AI empowerment will bring new opportunities while also raising not-yet-explored obstacles to realize Intelligent IoV. In this paper, we discuss the applicability of AI techniques in solving challenging vehicular problems and enhancing the learning capacity of edge devices and ICN networks. A comprehensive review is provided of utilizing intelligence in EC and ICN to address current challenges in their application to IIoV. In particular, we focus on intelligent edge computing and networking, offloading, intelligent mobility-aware caching and forwarding and overall network performance. Furthermore, we discuss potential solutions to the presented issues. Finally, we highlight potential research directions which may illuminate efforts to develop new intelligent IoV applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Information-Centric Networks (ICNs))

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