Naming Content on the Network Layer

Abstract

The Information-Centric Network (ICN) paradigm is a future Internet approach aiming to tackle the Internet architectural problems and inefficiencies, by swapping the main entity of the network architecture from hosts to content items. In ICN, content names play a central role: Each content gets a unique name at the network layer, and this name is used for routing the content over the network. This paradigm change potentially enables a future Internet with better performance, reliability, scalability, and suitability for wireless and mobile communication. It also provides new intrinsic means to deal with some popular attacks on the Internet architecture, such as denial of service. However, this new paradigm also represents new challenges related to security that need to be addressed, to ensure its capability to support current and future Internet requirements. This article surveys and summarizes ongoing research concerning security aspects of ICNs, discussing vulnerabilities, attacks, and proposed solutions to mitigate them. We also discuss open challenges and propose future directions regarding research in ICN security.