ICN Research Group J. Hong
Internet-Draft T. You
Intended status: Informational Y-G. Hong
Expires: April 20, 2019 ETRI
October 17, 2018

Architectural Considerations of ICN using Name Resolution Service
draft-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations-00

Abstract

This document discusses architectural considerations and implications of Information-Centric Networking (ICN) related to the usage of the Name Resolution Service (NRS). It describes how ICN architecture changes and what implications are in the routing system when NRS is utilized in ICN.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is an approach to evolve the Internet infrastructure to directly access Named Data Objects (NDOs) by its name, i.e., the name of NDO is directly used to route the request to the data object. Such name based routing in ICN poses a number of issues, which are not solved yet in ICN. These issues includes global scalability of routing, producer mobility, off-path cache, etc. In order to address these issues, the name resolution function has been applied to several ICN projects and literature [Afanasyev][Zhang2][Ravindran][MF][Bayhan].

Thus, this document describes how ICN architecture changes and what implications are in the routing system when Name Resolution Sevice (NRS) is utilized in ICN. It also discusses ICN architectural considerations for a NRS.

2. Conventions and Terminology

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3. Background

The name based routing in ICN poses a number of issues, such as global scalability of routing, producer mobility, off-path cache, etc., which are not solved yet in ICN. In order to address these issues, the name resolution function as a Name Resolution Sevice (NRS) has been applied to several ICN projects and literature:

Thus, this document discusses architectural considerations and implications of ICN when NRS is needed and utilized in ICN to solve such issues due to the name based routing in ICN.

4. Implications of NRS in ICN

In general, NRS is not mandatory in an ICN architecture and the majority of ICN projects use the name based routing which omits the name resolution. Thus adopting a NRS would change the ICN architecure at least on procedures, latency, and security:

5. ICN Architectural Considerations for NRS

This section discusses what kinds of things have to be considered from the point of view of ICN architecture when it utilizes a NRS.

5.1. Resolution

When a NRS is applying to an ICN architecture, the followings have to be considered:

The resolution can be done by consumer, routers, or both. Once it is decided where the resolution takes place, it has to be considered how the resolution does. The name provided by consumer might be always resolved to identifiers in a differnet namespace just like DNS lookup. Conversely, a NRS is ever needed to map names to a diferent namespace.

5.2. Protocols and Semantics

In order to develop NRS system whether in local ICN network domain or global ICN networking system, new protocol and semantics should be designed to manage and resolve in between different name spaces. Basically NRS can be implemented by extension of basic ICN TLV format and semantics ension of basic ICN TLV format and semantics [CCNxMessages] [CCNxSemantics]. For instance, resolution and response messages can be implemented by defining new type fields in Interest and Content Object message format [CCNxNRS]. Then it allows ICN architecture to minimize implication of ICN architectural changes. But NRS system cannot support more flexible and scalable designs cause to restrict basic ICN protocol and semantics.

On the other hand, NRS system can be implemented by using its own protocol and semantics like as existing NRS systems, such as [Hong]. For instance, NRS protocol and messages can be implemented by using RESTful API. Then NRS as application protocol can be operated independently from basic ICN architecture. But ICN architecture cannot get assist of routing protocol itself effectively.

5.3. Routing System

It has to be considered how to process the resolved information by NRS lookup. The results of an NRS operation can be intended to be used just to construct tunnels resulting in NRS identifying tunnel endpoints.

Another way to process the resolved information by NRS lookup is to use it as routing hints in request messages. In this case, request message needs to be re-written by the resolved information including the original name that was requested by consumer to check the data integrity.

6. Security Considerations

When NRS is adopted in an ICN architecture, security threats shall be increased in various aspects such as followings.

6.1. Name Space Separation

In order to deploy NRS on ICN architecture, ICN name spaces are separated into more than two name spaces. Thus these name spaces should be mapped and managed securely. According to the ICN research challenge [RFC7927], new name space can also provide an integrity verification function to authenticate its publishers. In addition to the verification, binding two different name spaces should be securely required.

6.2. NRS System

NRS enables deployment of new entities to build distributed and scalable NRS system. Thus, the entities, e.g., mapping server that can be a mapping database., could be a single point of failure cause to receive malicious requests from innumerable adversaries like as mount Denial of Service or Distributed Denial of service attacks. Additionally, in order to communicate with the entities to build NRS system, an initiator should rely on other NRS entities that are designed to distributed deploy mapping servers in each network domains. Because malicious entities should be involved in this communication to impersonate control functions. Thus, NRS entities should trust each other and communications with them should be protected securely.

6.3. NRS Protocols and Messages

Regarding NRS messages, such as lookup, update, and etc., if these messages are transported unauthenticated, an adversary can manipulate them and hijack the important communication to response or to store fake data. Thus, the adversary can generate malicious traffics to be redirected to victim hosts. Therefore, security requirements for NRS should be considered to protect ICN architecture as well as NRS.

7. Acknowledgements

[TBD]

8. References

8.1. Normative References

[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997.
[RFC7927] Kutscher, D., Eum, S., Pentikousis, K., Psaras, I., Corujo, D., Saucez, D., Schmidt, T. and M. Waehlisch, "Information-Centric Networking (ICN) Research Challenges", RFC 7927, DOI 10.17487/RFC7927, July 2016.

8.2. Informative References

[Afanasyev] Afanasyev, A. et al., "SNAMP: Secure Namespace Mapping to Scale NDN Forwarding", IEEE Global Internet Symposium , April 2015.
[Zhang2] Zhang, Y., "A Survey of Mobility Support in Named Data Networking", NAMED-ORIENTED MOBILITY: ARCHITECTURES, ALGORITHMS, AND APPLICATIONS(NOM) , 2016.
[Ravindran] Ravindran, R. et al., "Forwarding-Label support in CCN Protocol", draft-ravi-icnrg-ccn-forwarding-label-01 , July 2017.
[MF] , "NSF Mobility First project.", http://mobilityfirst.winlab.rutgers.edu/
[Bayhan] Bayhan, S. et al., "On Content Indexing for Off-Path Caching in Information-Centric Networks", ACM ICN , September 2016.
[CCNxSemantics] Mosko, M., Solis, I. and C. Wood, "CCNx Semantics", draft-irtf-icnrg-ccnxsemantics-06 , October 2017.
[CCNxMessages] Mosko, M., Solis, I. and C. Wood, "CCNx Messages in TLV Format", draft-irtf-icnrg-ccnxmessages-06 , October 2017.
[CCNxNRS] Hong, J. et al., "CCNx Extension for Name Resolution Service", draft-hong-icnrg-ccnx-nrs-00 , October 2017.
[Hong] Hong, J., Chun, W. and H. Jung, "Demonstrating a Scalable Name Resolution System for Information-Centric Networking", ACM ICN , September 2015.

Authors' Addresses

Jungha Hong ETRI 218 Gajeong-ro, Yuseung-Gu Daejeon, 34129 Korea EMail: jhong@etri.re.kr
Tae-Wan You ETRI 218 Gajeong-ro, Yuseung-Gu Daejeon, 34129 Korea EMail: twyou@etri.re.kr
Yong-Geun Hong ETRI 218 Gajeong-ro, Yuseung-Gu Daejeon, 34129 Korea EMail: yghong@etri.re.kr