NetInf: An Information-Centric Design for the Future Internet

The current Internet architecture has been very successful and has scaled well beyond the original aspirations. Nevertheless, the architecture suffers from multiple well docu- mented problems, many of which result from the fact that the usage of the Internet has changed drastically. For example, the original Internet architecture is designed to provide access to specific nodes in the network whereas today's usage is dominated by information dissemination where the information requester does not care about the source location. To adjust to those chan- ges, we develop a new, information-centric network architecture called Network of Information (NetInf ) in the context of the FP7 EU-funded 4WARD project. This architecture can significantly improve large scale information distribution. Furthermore, it supports future mobile networks in situations with intermittent and heterogeneous connectivity and connects the digital with the physical world to enable better user experience. NetInf is built upon an extended identifier/locator split which is based on a simple but powerful information model. Main aspects of NetInf include the persistent naming of information, a world- wide scalable name resolution mechanism for flat identifiers, and improved information availability and dissemination via caching and storage integrated into the network architecture.