CCNx 1.0 Acyclic Core Object Routing Functional Specification

We described the the Acyclic Core Object Routing (ACORN) protocol, which provides multicast like delivery of Interests over a CCN network using core based trees. The description is for implementation guidance, we do not offer protocol analysis, or proofs of correctness, liveness, or safety. Each publisher of a namespace joins the namespace’s tree, which forms an acyclic graph. Among those publishers, a distributed election determines which node will become the core of the tree. The core of the tree advertise itself using a distance vector protocol, so all nodes in the network now the core’s identity. When a subscriber to the namespace wishes to issue an Interest in to it, it unicasts the Interest towards the core, until it hits the first node that is a member of the tree. The Interest then floods the tree until a node responds with a Content Object to consume the Interest.