With ICN, delivery requests are forwarded to the original content source using the name of the content, and the content is cached at routers. In addition, by delivering content from a router on the request forwarding path, efficient content delivery is possible with less network resources consumed.
In ICN, however, destination information for content names must be stored in the forwarding tables of routers, so to make ICNs larger, i.e., to improve the scalability of ICNs, controlling the size of the forwarding tables is an important issue.
To this end, we are working on research to effectively reduce the size of the forwarding tables of ICN routers. For example, we are working on research on using Content Delivery Network (CDN) cache servers to place content originals to improve the aggregation effect of forwarding table entries, and on controlling content delivery routes.
Scalability Issue in Information-Centric Networking
Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is gaining attention as a next-generation network for efficient content delivery. ICN makes it possible to request content directly by content name, without identifying the source delivering content. In addition, by delivering content from routers on the request forwarding path, efficient content delivery is possible with less network resources consumed.
In ICN, however, destination information for content names must be stored in the forwarding table at routers, and a huge number of contents on the network causes the size of the forwarding table to explode. Therefore, to realize a large-scale ICN with improving the scalability of ICN, suppressing the required size of the forwarding table is an important issue.
This is why our laboratory is working on research to effectively reduce the size of the forwarding table of ICN routers. For example, we are working on research on using cache servers of Content Delivery Network (CDN) to place content originals so as to improve the aggregation effect of forwarding table entries, and on controlling content delivery routes.
Migration Techniques of Information-Centric Networking
While the Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is gaining attention as a new network that will streamline IoT data and content delivery, it is unrealistic to expect the entire part of the current Internet to be replaced by ICN all at once, and ICN is expected to be introduced gradually, in parts.
Therefore, ICN and the existing Internet (IP network) are expected to be mixed. Therefore, techniques are needed to forward packets between routers with different data forwarding methods; ICN transfers packets based on content names, while IP networks transfer packets based on IP addresses.
To this end, we are working on technologies related to gateway functions that enable packet forwarding between ICN routers and IP routers.
Cache Control Using Topology Structure of SNS
Social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter are characterized by a popularity bias toward data generated by a small number of influencers. Therefore, when caching SNS data in ICN routers, it is effective to consider the topology structure of SNS.
To this end, we are conducting research to analyze ICN cache control schemes and their effectiveness based on the topology structure of SNS.