Information Centric Networks: A New Paradigm for the Internet

Conclusion

The traffic generated by content distribution applications corresponds to more than a half of the current Internet traffic [SAN 11]. In Brazil, for example, 53% of traffic comes from P2P file-sharing systems and multimedia streaming applications. In North America and Europe, this percentage achieves 60% [SAN 11]. Although content distribution applications already have millions of users and, in particular cases, experience a great commercial success, the current Internet architecture imposes technical barriers that significantly increases the complexity to implement and manage such applications. In practice, current applications are still mostly working because of the “patches” applied to the Internet. These patches may compromise network scalability and are proprietary solutions, in most cases. In addition, solutions such as P2P systems and content distribution networks run as overlays and do not take into account the underlying network topology to increase the content distribution efficiency.

ICNs, in this context, are an alternative and promising network substrate not only to develop content distribution but also for conversational applications. The main advantage of the ICN paradigm is to intrinsically provide efficient resource and data sharing, mechanisms to increase content availability, intrinsic content security and mobility support. ICN-based solutions, in general, are simpler than the proposals for the current Internet.

Ongoing studies are mainly focused on ...