Information-centric networking (ICN) is an approach to evolve the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

infrastructure away from a host-centric paradigm, based on perpetual connectivity and the

end-to-end principle The end-to-end principle is a design framework in computer networking. In networks designed according to this principle, guaranteeing certain application-specific features, such as reliability and security, requires that they reside in the commu ...

, to a network architecture in which the focal point is identified information (or content or data). In this paradigm, connectivity may well be intermittent, end-host and in-network storage can be capitalized upon transparently, as bits in the network and on

data storage device Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are consi ...

s have exactly the same value, mobility and multi access are the norm and

anycast Anycast is a network addressing and routing methodology in which a single destination IP address is shared by devices (generally servers) in multiple locations. Routers direct packets addressed to this destination to the location nearest the sen ...

multicast In computer networking, multicast is group communication where data transmission is addressed to a group of destination computers simultaneously. Multicast can be one-to-many or many-to-many distribution. Multicast should not be confused wi ...

, and broadcast are natively supported. Data becomes independent from location, application, storage, and means of transportation, enabling in-network caching and replication. The expected benefits are improved efficiency, better scalability with respect to information/bandwidth demand and better robustness in challenging communication scenarios. In information-centric networking the cache is a network level solution, and it has rapidly changing cache states, higher request arrival rates and smaller cache sizes. In particular,

information-centric networking caching policies In computing, cache algorithms (also frequently called cache replacement algorithms or cache replacement policies) are optimizing instructionsor algorithmsthat a computer program or a hardware-maintained structure can follow in order to mana ...

should be fast and lightweight. X. Jiang, J. Bi, G. Nan and Z. Li, "A survey on Information-centric Networking: Rationales, designs and debates," in China Communications, vol. 12, no. 7, pp. 1-12, July 2015, doi: 10.1109/CC.2015.7188520

IRTF Working Group

The

Internet Research Task Force The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is an organization, overseen by the Internet Architecture Board, that focuses on longer-term research issues related to the Internet. A parallel organization, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), fo ...

(IRTF) is sponsoring a research group on Information-Centric Networking Research, which serves as a forum for the exchange and analysis of ICN research ideas and proposals. Current and future work items and outputs are managed on the ICNRG wiki.

References

{{Reflist Computer networking