Trying an IP Over NDN Packet Gateway

TL;DR

This paper presents a transition mechanism that enables IP traffic to be transparently transmitted over Named Data Networking (NDN), demonstrating its effectiveness with low packet loss and jitter.

Contribution

It designs and optimizes an open source IP over ICN transition application using NDN, facilitating legacy IP traffic over future ICN networks.

Findings

Successful transparent IP transport over NDN with negligible packet loss.

Low jitter and good performance in IP over NDN transmission.

Prototype demonstrates feasibility of IP transition to ICN.

Abstract

Even though the TCP/IP architecture has served the Internet quite satisfactorily during its more than forty years of lifespan, there are doubts about whether this host-centric paradigm is well suited for the communication patterns of modern applications. These applications mainly need to get information pieces without being bothered about where they are located in the network. Additionally, the lack of both in-built security mechanisms and proper global multicast support may also be a symptom of fundamental problems with the classic architecture. Proponents of the novel Information Centric Networking (ICN) paradigm assert that the replacement of the TCP/IP architecture with one based on the information itself could be the ideal solution to all these problems. However, if such a replacement ever takes place, it will need the help of some transition mechanisms, for instance, for the transmission of legacy IP traffic on top of the new ICN based networks. In this paper we design and optimize such an open source IP over ICN transition application using the Named Data Networking (NDN) proposal as our target ICN network. We performed several tests that confirm that our prototype is able to transparently transport IP traffic across a pure NDN network with negligible packets losses, low jitter, and good performance.