ICN in the IRTF and IETF

Dirk Kutscher Chief Researcher, NEC Laboratories Europe GreenICN Research Activities and Future of EU/US/JP ICN Projects Workshop 2015-10-30

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Disclaimer

▌Internet Research Task ForcePromotes research of importance to

the evolution of the Internet bycreating focused, long-termResearch Groups working on topicsrelated to Internet protocols,applications, architecture and technology

▌Does not set standards

▌Relationship to IETF IRTF technologies can be brought to IETF for standardization ... Just as technologies from other groups can

▌IRTF Research GroupsOutput does not require consensus within RGCannot block standardization work in the IETFCan include a goal of producing proposals to be considered in the IETF

RFC 2014RFC 4440

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IRTF ICNRG

▌Cross-project research communityNot limited to a specific funding authority, project, protocolSharing of research results, new ideasDocumenting ICN scenarios, challenges, state-of-the-art solutions, gapsSpecifying protocols and semantics for ICNSharing implementation, experience from experiments

▌ICNRG and standardsNot setting standards...But: helping to understand what needs to be standardizedAnd: working on specifications

▌ICNRG AdministriviaWeb: http://irtf.org/icnrgChairs

• Börje Ohlman (Ericsson Research)• Dave Oran (Cisco Systems)• Dirk Kutscher (NEC Laboratories)

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ICNRG Work Items

▌Scenarios, use casesBaseline scenarios (RFC 7476)Video distribution IoTChallenged networks and disaster scenarios

▌Challenges, evaluationResearch challenges Evaluation Methodology

▌Protocol specificationsCCNx Messages in TLV formatCCNx Semantics

▌Newly proposed topicsManifests, chunking, fragmentation, versioningUser privacy, access controlName resolutionNamed function networking

Documentinguse cases &

opportunities

Evolving research agenda

& evaluation approaches

Creating interoperable platforms for

experimentation

Evolving ICN concepts and technologies

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Running Code

▌CCNx-1.0 (PARC)PARC licenseDeveloped by PARC Implements ccnx-messages

and ccnx-semantics

▌CCN-lite (University of Basel)Open Source, free to use without restrictions Implements ccnx protocolUsed by RIOT project

▌NDN NFD (NDN project)GPL-3.0Maintained by NDN project Implemented NDN protocol

Open Source projects

▌Many industry-relevant technologies are developed is OSS projects these daysOpenVSwitchOpenDaylightOpenStackOPNFV etc.

▌Purpose:Reference platformsSoftware-based de-facto

standardsCommon base for commdity

functions

▌ICNRG: agile, light-weight model preferable

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Elements of Potential Future Protocol Standardization

ICN protocol (encoding, messages, semantics)Manifests, fragmentation

Underlays, Link-layer Control Bootstrapping connectivity

Key Service, CA

Key Resolution Protocol Specific security mechanism (confidentiality,

access control)

Inter-DomainRouting

Intra-Domain Routing

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ICN „Standardization“ Bigger Picture

IETF

• ICN forwarding• ICN routing• ICN security

• Application layer specs• Web• „DASH“• IoT

IRTF ICNRG

• Protocols and platforms for experimentation

• No formal standards• Identifying elements

needing standards

ITU-T

• Concepts, Terminology• 5G Use Cases• 5G Requirements

Now

3GPP

• 5G Radio Interface• 5G System Architecture• 5G Control & Data Plane

Potentiallyin thefuture

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Warning: Avoid Premature Standardization

ICN▌Explore ICN potential through development and experimentation▌Some things are really different in ICN: forwarding plane

capabilities, securityCan make some of today‘s control and mangement plane functions obsoleteCan lead to much simpler and overall better architectures

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Role of GreenICN Project

▌Thesis: one ICN platform for well-connected and challenged mobile network infrastructureNetwork can survive partitioning, overloadAuto-configuration and adaptationScalability

▌Develop and validate mechanisms with this goal in mind, e.g.,:Publish/Subscribe Interface selection and forwarding strategiesContent/cache discovery through forwarding plane mechanisms

Ctrl.

HA LoadBalancer

Ctrl.

…

Internet

RNC IW3GWiFi

4G5G

xDSLCable

G IW

vPoPs

Transport

Data Center

DB

auth.services

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How Can You Help?

▌New projectsLeverage ICN technologies and available Open Source softwareParticipate in protocol development in ICNRGSet up larger testbedsEmbrace development and experimentation for research workShare your results

▌Initial DeploymentDon‘t have to wait until the Internet switches to ICNThere are areas where ICN is and can be deployed today, e.g.:

• Data logistics in data centers• IoT• Multi-path communication (hybrid access)

Build prototypes for your areaDemonstrate concrete benefitsShare your results

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Summary

▌ICNRG IRTFDeveloping platforms for ICN experimentation Identifying challenges and need for standardsRunning code importantOpen reference implementation desirable

▌Future standardizationAvoid pre-mature standardizationBetter to understand clearly what needs to be standardizedLearn that from (application) prototype developmentAvoid transferring technologies and standardized interfaces from the IP world

(BGP, DNS) – ICN likely to lead to different architectures and requirements

▌ICN and 5G ICN benefits could be huge (new radio technologies, multi-path, local control

loops, security)Softwarization enabling initial deployment IRTF ICNRG good place to have technical discussion