Ravishankar Ravindran

Supporting seamless mobility in named data networking

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) architectures aim to replace current host-centric IP architecture with an information-centric one for efficient, secure, and reliable dissemination of information. ICN is built on several salient principles such as publish and subscribe paradigm, named content, innetwork caching, and security over atomic information objects. These features allow a data chunk to be cached and retrieved from multiple nodes in the network, and can be validated without building a connection with its host. Though these tenets simplify the mobility problem in ICN, seamless mobility for real-time applications still demands a control plane. We propose three cross-layer network-assisted seamless mobility schemes: (1) point of attachment based, (2) rendezvous point based, and (3) multicast based, with the overall design objective of minimizing the loss of interests and data during a handoff scenario. This paper describes these schemes in named data networking (NDN) framework and discusses their trade-offs in terms of control and forwarding plane requirements.

Towards software defined ICN based edge-cloud services

ICN deployment will be based on the grounds of saving CAPEX/OPEX and/or enabling new services. This paper makes a case for the latter leveraging, emerging technologies such as network function virtualization (NFV) and software defined networking (SDN). We propose a framework to enable ICN based service platform as virtualized network functions to enable several edge-cloud services such as enterprise applications, big data analytic, or M2M/IoT services. This platform is generic to support several ICN protocols and corresponding real-time and non-real time services leveraging ICN features such as name based routing, caching, multicasting, and flexible security techniques. As an implementation of this architecture, we discuss how a scalable network based conferencing solution can be realized over the proposed ICN platform and compare it with a peer-to-peer design through a performance analysis.

Mobility study for Named Data Networking in wireless access networks

Information centric networking (ICN) proposes to redesign the Internet by replacing its host-centric design with information-centric design. Communication among entities is established at the naming level, with the receiver side (referred to as the Consumer) acting as the driving force behind content delivery, by interacting with the network through Interest message transmissions. One of the proposed advantages for ICN is its support for mobility, by de-coupling applications from transport semantics. However, so far, little research has been conducted to understand the interaction between ICN and mobility of consuming and producing applications, in protocols purely based on information-centric principles, particularly in the case of NDN. In this paper, we present our findings on the mobility-based performance of Named Data Networking (NDN) in wireless access networks. Through simulations, we show that the current NDN architecture is not efficient in handling mobility and architectural enhancements needs to be done to fully support mobility of Consumers and Producers.

Contextualized information-centric home network

We deploy information-centric networks (ICN) to serve several applications including content distribution, vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V), home networks (homenet), and sensor networks. These applications require policy and context-based interaction between service producers and consumers. We visualize the ICN service layer as a contextualized information-centric bus (CIBUS), over which diverse sets of service producers and consumers co-exist. We develop a prototype and demonstrate several desirable features of ICN for homenets such as contextual service publishing and subscription, zero-configuration based node and service discovery, policy based routing and forwarding with name-based firewall, and device-to-device communication. Furthermore the prototype is applicable to both ad hoc and infrastructure settings, and can deal with diverse devices and services.

A comparative study of MobilityFirst and NDN based ICN-IoT architectures

To develop unified IoT platforms where objects can be made accessible to applications across organizations and domains, popular solutions are based on client-server overlays on todays Internet. These solutions, however, inherit the inefficiencies of the current Internet - especially in terms of mobility, scalability, and communication reliability. To address this problem, we propose to build the unified IoT platform leveraging the salient feats of Information-Centric Network (ICN) architectures, which we call ICN-IoT. Specifically, we explore two ICN architectures - MobilityFirst and NDN - to support IoT, and refer to them as MF-IoT and NDN-IoT, respectively. Through detailed simulations, we find that though these two architectures fare comparably, MF-IoT incurs lower control overheads.

5G-ICN: Delivering ICN Services over 5G Using Network Slicing

The challenging requirements of 5G, from both the applications and architecture perspectives, motivate the need to explore the feasibility of delivering services over new network architectures. As 5G proposes application-centric network slicing, which enables the use of new data planes realizable over a programmable compute, storage, and transport infrastructure, we consider information- centric networking as a candidate network architecture to realize 5G objectives. This can coexist with end-to-end IP services that are offered today. To this effect, we first propose a 5G-ICN architecture and compare its benefits (i.e., innovative services offered by leveraging ICN features) to current 3GPP-based mobile architectures. We then introduce a general application-driven framework that emphasizes the flexibility afforded by network functions virtualization and software defined networking over which 5G-ICN can be realized. We specifically focus on the issue of how mobility as a service (MaaS) can be realized as a 5G-ICN slice, and give an in-depth overview on resource provisioning and inter-dependencies and coordination among functional 5G-ICN slices to meet the MaaS objectives. The article tries to show the flexibility of delivering services over ICN where virtualization of control and data plane can be used by applications to meet complex service logic execution while creating value to its end users.

Seamless Producer Mobility as a Service in Information Centric Networks

In this paper, we present a service-driven mobility support architecture for Information Centric Networks that provides seamless mobility as an on-demand network service, which can be enabled/disabled based on network capabilities or resource availability. Proposed architecture relies on the ID/Locator split on ICN namespaces to support the use of persistent names and avoids name reconfiguration due to mobility. We implemented the proposed solution over a service-centric CCN platform, with multiple end-hosts running a video conferencing application acting as Consumers and Producers, and observed its capability to support seamless handover.

IoT Middleware Architecture over Information-Centric Network

Many approaches have been proposed to build a unified IoT platform where physical and digital objects are accessible by applications crossing different organization and domains, and are based on IP-overlay architecture. These solutions inherit the constraints of the current internet, especially in terms of naming, heterogeneity, mobility and security. In this paper, we propose a new Information-Centric Network (ICN) based IoT middleware to address these challenges by leveraging various promising features of ICN, such as naming. We elaborate the functions of ICN-based IoT middleware by integrating with the two future internet architectures, namely Named-Data Networking and MobilityFirst. Moreover, we evaluate the efficiency of service discovery (one of the functions in the proposed ICN-based IoT middleware) and demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed ICNbased IoT middleware .

Exploiting ICN for Realizing Service-Oriented Communication in IoT

The rapid growth in Internet of Things (IoT) deployment has posed unprecedented challenges to the underlying network design. We envision that tomorrows global-scale IoT systems will focus on service-oriented data sharing and processing rather than point-to-point data collection. Requirements such as global reachability, mobility, communication diversity, and security will also develop naturally along with the change in the communication patterns. However, existing (IP-based) networks focus only on locations and point-to-point channels. The mismatch between the dynamic requirements and the functionalities provided by the network renders IoT communication inefficient and inconvenient. Information-centric networking (ICN) shifts the focus from location to the (identity of) information. This paradigm can naturally be adapted to IoT communication since service can also be identified as a type of information. To demonstrate the potential of ICN in IoT communication, this article adopts and modifies a particular example of ICN called MobilityFirst, and shows that the target architecture can satisfy the requirements posed by IoT communication. Similar adaptations can also be used by other ICN architectures such as NDN and XIA.

An Information Centric Networking approach towards contextualized edge service

Information Centric Networking (ICN) has been a popular research topic in the last few years, but has not attracted industry attention because of its disruptive view; this is expected considering the evolution from PSTN to IP. Towards its adoption, ICN should not only address challenges raised by current applications, but also enable a compelling service framework for next generation of networking. We envision that in the next generation networks, the network narrow waist will allow an efficient distribution of intelligence across terminals, access, edge and core network. This will enable new applications, services and future business models to be realized. Two other technologies, NFV and SDN, which in essence are frameworks that enable service-centric networking, fit well with the objective of information-centric networking, where the delivered content is a result of contextual interaction between consumers and services orchestrated to meet service objectives. Most significant benefit of this interaction will be in the network-edge considering sensitivity to service latency, customization, and contextualization. This paper provides an overview of an ICN based edge service framework, with comprehensive discussion on service composition, orchestration, and routing logic with mapping to resources in the underlying substrate. We also provide a discussion of the prototype to realize this platform and a network based conferencing system scalable to large number of participants; however the platform itself is generic to handle any service type including content distribution, video conferencing, and M2M applications.