A Survey of Information-Centric Networking Research

TLDR

The host‑centric Internet architecture, adequate for early users, now faces a shift toward information access regardless of location, driving research into Information‑Centric Networking to address security, mobility, and other emerging needs. This survey identifies ICN core functionalities, compares key proposals, and highlights their strengths, weaknesses, and outstanding research challenges.

Abstract

The current Internet architecture was founded upon a host-centric communication model, which was appropriate for coping with the needs of the early Internet users. Internet usage has evolved however, with most users mainly interested in accessing (vast amounts of) information, irrespective of its physical location. This paradigm shift in the usage model of the Internet, along with the pressing needs for, among others, better security and mobility support, has led researchers into considering a radical change to the Internet architecture. In this direction, we have witnessed many research efforts investigating Information-Centric Networking (ICN) as a foundation upon which the Future Internet can be built. Our main aims in this survey are: (a) to identify the core functionalities of ICN architectures, (b) to describe the key ICN proposals in a tutorial manner, highlighting the similarities and differences among them with respect to those core functionalities, and (c) to identify the key weaknesses of ICN proposals and to outline the main unresolved research challenges in this area of networking research.