Network Working Group                                             W. Liu
Internet-Draft                                       Huawei Technologies
Intended status: Informational                                    J. Ren
Expires: February 10, 2014                                       J. Wang
                                            City University of Hong Kong
                                                         August 09, 2013


  A Unified Framework for Software-Defined Information-Centric Network
                    draft-icn-implementation-sdn-00

Abstract

   This document aims at discussing some research issues about the
   implementation of information-centric network (ICN) architectures.
   Towards this end, we first review the implementation methods employed
   by various ICNs and discuss the potential problems of these
   implementations.  Then we propose a unified framework for ICN
   implementation based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technique
   which can facilitate the implementation of any ICN architecture and
   interoperability among different ICN architectures.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on February 10, 2014.

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   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents



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   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  ICN implementation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  ICN over IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  ICN over L2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.3.  ICN over virtualized network  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Software-Defined Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  A unified framework for software-defined information-centric
       network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   To provide more efficient information dissemination, many studies are
   driven to redesign the current Internet architecture.  Information-
   centric network (ICN) is one of these works.  In ICN, the information
   name is unique and independent of locations, applications, storages
   and distribution approaches, which allows ubiquitous information
   retrieval.

   Based on this basic concept, many ICN architectures have been
   proposed, for example, NDN [NDN], NetInf [NetInf], and the publish-
   subscribe Internet (PSI) architecture [PSI].  To retrieve named
   information, various advanced transmission techniques are introduced,
   including name-based routing, name-based resolution, multicast and
   etc.  To fully support these techniques, dramatic changes to the
   network devices deployed in current Internet are needed, which may
   lead to challenge of ICNs implementation.











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   Typically, the ICN deployment schemes can be classified into three
   categories: 1).  ICN over IP, which encapsulate ICN protocol data in
   IP (or UDP/TCP) packets or take ICN protocol information using IP
   options; 2) ICN over L2, which completely replace IP layer and
   directly use data link protocol (such as PPP, Ethernet, IEEE 802.x)
   to deliver data between neighbors; 3) ICN over virtualized network,
   which exploit network virtualization technologies, such as software-
   defined networking (SDN), to implement ICNs.

   Although these schemes have both advantages and disadvantages, most
   works on ICN implementation focus on how to implement a particular
   ICN architecture.  However, different ICN architecture employ
   different transmission techniques and packet format, which is not
   easy for the co-existence and inter-operability of different ICNs.
   Thus, a unified framework for ICN implementation is needed to fast
   deploy different ICNs, which may further support the inter-
   operability among different ICNs.

   This document first surveys several implementation methods and aims
   to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of these methods.  Then,
   we propose a unified framework for ICN implementation based on
   Software-Defined Networking techniques, which can support fast
   implementation of various ICNs .

2.  ICN implementation

   This section presents several implementation schemes.  For each
   scheme, existing papers are survey to analyze the advantages and
   disadvantages.

2.1.  ICN over IP

   The most popular way is implementing ICNs as the overlay, in the same
   way that Internet implement over the telecommunication network.  For
   example, the NDN prototype, CCNx, is implemented in an overlay on
   existing IP networks.  The advantage is that only a few nodes need to
   be updated for supporting new ICN-related operations, which enables
   fast deployment.  The disadvantage of this scheme is the performance
   of ICNs is limited as the performance can be affected by the
   performance of the underlayer network.

2.2.  ICN over L2

   ICN over L2 means using ICN to replace IP layer.  The prototype of
   PURSUIT, blackadder, is implemented based on CLINK router and can be
   run over Ethernet.  It also design a new forwarding technique to
   achieve efficient multicast with line speed.  CRoWN introduces ICN
   concept in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks [CRoWN].  It is implemented on



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   top of the IEEE 802.11p standard layers.  The advantage is that ICN
   can fully exploit the resource of underlayer networks can achieve
   better performance.  The disadvantage is that it is difficult to
   widely deployment.

2.3.  ICN over virtualized network

   ICN over virtualized network is to exploit some virtualization
   techniques for implementation.  One of the potential techniques is
   SDN.  The main characteristic of SDN is the decoupling of control
   plane and data plane, which makes the data plane much more simple and
   elegant compared to the traditional networks.  CONET, one of ICNs, is
   implemented over OpenFlow (the most popular SDN instantiation)
   [CONET].  The OpenFlow is extended to support ICN-related operations.
   The advantage is that the decoupling enables the fast deployment of
   ICNs with fully supporting ICNs features.  However, existing works
   focus on how to implement a particular ICN architecture.

3.  Software-Defined Networking

   Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging paradigm which
   decouples the control plane that makes decision, including packets
   routing and procession, from the data plane that forwards packets to
   the desired destination [SDN].  With this separation, SDN allows
   network administrators to specify more complex network services
   (e.g., security, resource control, and prioritization) more easily
   through the programmable central control of network traffic without
   reprograming the underlying hardware devices.  It also makes network
   configurations easier to configure, manage, troubleshoot, and debug.

   SDN has attracted significant attention in both the academia and the
   industry.  Many researches have been proposed to exploit SDN to
   implement traffic engineering, security and so on, which is more
   complex in traditional Internet.  Many industry group, including Open
   Networking Foundation (ONF) and IRTF Software-Defined Networking
   Research Group (SDNRG), has been set up to lead the advancement of
   SDN and standardizing critical elements of the SDN architecture.
   There are some SDN pilots in industry.  For example, Google has
   implemented its inter-data center based on SDN.

4.  A unified framework for software-defined information-centric network

   This section describes the unified framework proposed in this paper
   for enabling ICN implementation.  This framework was designed as a
   flexible solution and capable of modularizing ICN architecture.  The
   most important functions of ICNs are abstracted from various works
   and modularized in the framework.




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   Figure 1 is the overview of our framework.  The function modules are
   extracted from various ICN proposals.

              Please view in a fixed-width font such as Courier.

                  Please view in a fixed-width font such as Courier.

                 +----------------------+   +----------------------+
                 |                      |   |                      |
                 |    ICN protocol A    |   |    ICN protocol B    |
                 | +------------------+ |   | +------------------+ |
                 | | cache management | |   | |   optimization   | |
                 | +------------------+ |   | +------------------+ |
                 | |    routing       | |   | |    routing       | |
                 | +------------------+ |   | +------------------+ |
                 | |content management| |   | |content management| |
    Control      | +------------------+ |   | +------------------+ |
    Program      +----------------------+   +----------------------+
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

                    +---------------+ +----------------------+
                    |    Protocol   | |Network Virtualization|
                    |               | +----------------------+
                    | Recognization | | Topology Management  |
    Controller      +---------------+ +----------------------+
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                          +------------------+
    Switch                                | +--------------+ |
                    +------------------+  | | Label Mapping| |
                    | +--------------+ |  | +--------------+ |
                    | |    Cache     | |  | |    Cache     | |
                    | +--------------+ |  | +--------------+ |
                    | |  Forwarding  | |  | |  Forwarding  | |
                    | +--------------+ |  | +--------------+ |
                    |      Switch      |  |  Access Switch   |
                    +------------------+  +------------------+



                   the overview of the unified framework

   Based on Software-Defined Networking, the proposed framework contains
   three components: switch, controller and control programs.  Switches
   forward packets according to its flow entries and cache packet
   following its cache policy.  A special switch, called access switch,
   can encapsulate the original ICN packet according to mapping rules
   configured by the controller. (to do.  The interface between switches
   and the controller).  The controller can collect the topology



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   information from switches to form a global map of the network and
   then slice the network resource for different control program.  The
   controller will receive the packet which cannot be routed by the
   switches.  It can recognize the packet protocol and send the packet
   to the corresponding control program. (to do).  Each control program
   implements a particular ICN protocol.  It will receive the packet
   from the controller and execute protocol-related operations. (to do).

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document makes no request of IANA.

6.  Security Considerations

   Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

7.2.  Informative References

   [CONET]    L. Veltri, et al., ., "Supporting Information-Centric
              Functionality in software defined networks", 2012.

   [CRoWN]    M. Amadeo, et al., ., "CRoWN: Content-Centric Networking
              in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks", 2012.

   [DON]      T. Koponen, et al., ., "A data-oriented (and beyond)
              network architecture", 2007.

   [ICN]      B. Ahlgren, et al., ., "A survey of information-centric
              networking", 2012.

   [NBN]      V. Jacobson, et al., ., "Networking named content", 2009.

   [NDN]      V, Jacobson, et al., ., "Networking named content", 2009.

   [NetInf]   C. Dannewitz, ., "NetInf: An Information-Centric Design
              for the Future Internet", 2011.

   [PSI]      P. Jokela, et al., ., "LIPSIN: line speed publish/
              subscribe inter-networking", 2011.





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   [SDN]      N. McKeown, et al., ., "OpenFlow: enabling innovation in
              campus networks", 2008.

Authors' Addresses

   Will(Shucheng) Liu
   Huawei Technologies
   Bantian, Longgang District
   Shenzhen  518129
   P.R. China

   Email: liushucheng@huawei.com


   Jing Ren
   City University of Hong Kong
   Tat Chee Avenue
   Hong Kong
   P.R. China

   Email: jingren@cityu.edu.hk


   JianPing Wang
   City University of Hong Kong
   Tat Chee Avenue
   Hong Kong
   P.R. China

   Email: jianwang@cityu.edu.hk





















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