CCN: Content Centric Networks, Future

Internet Architecture

Qazi Mujeeb Ahmed 1, 2, Abdul Qadeer 2, Sharjeel Gillani 2

1
Center of Research in Networks & Communication, CORENET, MAJU, Islamabad, Pakistan
2
Department of Computer Engineering, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract -- Recently networks are thought as a addresses. One is designated for source or sending
source of communication between people. With the node, which represents the identification and address
passage of time use of network has further evolved, to of source node. And other is designated for
share documents, files and various other adept things
destination node, which will represent the
between two or multiple users. Up till this network
identification and address of destination node. IP is
technology only speaks about connections between hosts.
But now, network use is evolved and dominated by
only for the identification of source and destination
content distribution and retrieval. People are more node, and all the remaining communication between
concerned with content despite of location of content. nodes is done through TCP (Transmission Control
User’s philosophy and thinking is evolved for mapping Protocol) [3].
from where (user requirement) to what (traditional
network concern). We present Content Centric By the creation and validation of packet
Networking (CCN), which caters latest requirements and networking, the cost of computers and the
thinking of users. This approach treats content as a equipments associated with it begins to reduce
primitive, and decouples location from its identity. User continuously with the passage of time. The storage
now access content by its name despite of its location. spaces to store the data becomes cheap. Internet is all
Key Words: Networks, Communication, Content, Content
concerned with sharing of data through establishing
Centric Networking connection with existing nodes on the network. Thus,
it became very easy and cost effective to store large
I- INTRODUCTION amount of data available to share with other nodes
present over network. It gives the gateway and plays
Today’s Internet principles and architecture was vital role to access large amount of new content –
engineered and created in the 1960s and 70s [1]. The 500 exabytes created in 2008 alone [4]. People are
encouraging factor for development of this traditional more concerned with the nature of data or what
networks at that time was resource sharing. Sharing content, but communication is still in terms of where.
of expensive and rare devices like card readers or
high speed tape drivers or even super computers. The The simplest and easiest way to solve this
underlay communication model developed after these problem is to replace where with what. Host to host
initial concerns was strict communication model communication for exchanging data was the
between exactly two machines. One machine asking traditional consideration considered in 1960s and 70s.
to use the resources and other is giving access to it. We argue that named data is the better abstraction for
So the first Internet Protocol TCP/IP was made to today’s communication problems then named hosts.
fulfill initial requirements of the users and giving In early times people are more concerned with the
them way to communicate with one another [2]. communication of devices or hosts, so they named
Primarily, keeping in view the first requirement of the hosts or devices. Today people are more
communication between two machines or hosts, IP concerned with the communication of content despite
(Internet Protocol) packet has two identifiers or of their location, so it is better and effective to name
the content despite of their location or carrying node. thing eliminates various host relevant threats and
We present the Content Centric Networking (CCN), a vulnerabilities as faced in IP Networking.
communication architecture fabricated on named
data. We describe the architecture and operation
of CCN in section 2, Future Work is shown in section
The comparison between IP and CCN protocol is 3 and finally in section 4 we will conclude the paper.
shown in Figure 1. The layers shown in figure gives
the understanding of protocols and services offered in
their subsequent area. Most layers of both gives us
II- CCN ARCHITECTURE
same output or results but through their different
compatible protocols. The major impact is at layer 3, CCN (Content Centric Architecture) basically
the network layer. Much of IP’s success is due to has only two types of packets, “Interest Packet” and
simplicity of its IP layer called as the thin waist of “Data Packet”. All the architecture of CCN is based
stack [4]. The weakness of IP resides on layer 2 upon these two types of packets. Only these two
where it claims stateless, unreliable, unordered, best packets revolve in the whole network and fulfill the
effort delivery. The major distinction between IP and requirements of both the users and network. These
CCN is that, IP at layer 2 only can reside on TCP. It packets are responsible of satisfying the operability
is tightly coupled with TCP. But on other hand CCN and efficiency of network. The whole CCN model is
can be layered over anything, including IP itself. consumer or receiver dependent. The communication
in the CCN is totally dependent upon the consumer or
receiver. Consumer of information or data is the only
entity in the whole network to kick starts the
operability of CCN. Consumer of information or data
basically shows his willingness for any data or
information. His willingness is transformed in his
interest in the form of Interest Packet. Interest Packet
shown in figure 2, basically consists of information
of required data and also information about
consumer. Consumer simply broadcasts the Interest
Packet at its all connected links or hosts to get the
copy of data. If the receiving nodes have latest copy
of required data then they will consume the received
interest packet and reply the required data packet [5].
In other condition, if they do not have the updated
Figure 1. IP and CCN Comparison
copy of required data or information. Then they will
CCN outruns IP in many critical ways. The simply broadcast the received Interest Packet to their
introduction of Strategy Layer and Security Layer in connected or immediate links or hosts to get the copy
protocol stack gives great dominance to CCN. The of data or information. Same procedure and
strategy layer enables the CCN to take maximum philosophy will be done at next nodes. The procedure
advantage of multiple simultaneous connectivities. will be repeated till the successful response of data.
Strategy layer makes the CCN to communicate either The data packet will follow the same path, the
at Ethernet, 3G, Bluetooth or 802.11 simultaneously interest packet has followed to reach the data
at same time. This layer improves the functionality of carrying node. While its journey back towards the
CCN in terms of resource sharing and load balancing. original requesting node, the copy of data packet is
It will make the access to the Network through any cached or stored at every intermediate node. Standard
gateway simultaneously. Security Layer is also Multicast Suppression technique in which nodes
another attainment in CCN stack. It is responsible of shares the transmission over the broadcast medium is
securing content despite of Host, as done in IP. This also used in order to cater the multiple nodes
interested in same content [6].
 hierarchical way. Hierarchical naming for mp3 song
can be thought as: mp3song/atif-aslam/album-
2014/ab. This interest packet will be replied as data
packet in the form of mp3 song, sung by atif aslam,
from the album released in 2014 and the song name
started with the phrase “ab”.

The basic operation of CCN resembles a lot

with traditional IP network. A packet arrives on a
interface, a longest match lookup is done on its name,
Figure 2. CCN Packets
and then an action is performed based on the result of
The Naming of content is of major that lookup [7]. Figure 3 shows the diagrammatic
significance in the CCN architecture. As whole CCN CCN packet forwarding engine. CCN has basically
architecture is not based upon IP for any subsequent three types of data structures: FIB (Forwarding
information or data. But truly based upon names of Information Base), CS (Content Store) and PIT
the content and their unique identification in the (Pending Interest Table). These three data structures
network. It is as simple as calling any person by his are present on every CCN node in order to attain
name in the daily life. The same thing is done in CCN compatibility.
CCN, calling content by its name. As there is large
amount of data present in the networks, and users are
interested in diversified large amount of data. So
calling the content by its name is an issue to be
considered. So in CCN, hierarchical naming is used
to represent the data or information. Hierarchical
naming is done in a way to represent the focused or
refined data, and leaving no room for any mistake.
Contents are named in a hierarchical way.
Hierarchical naming can be understood by any daily
life example as, if we take any person example in a
way. If we have to call any person named as “Faisal”,
then there are so many persons named as faisal
around us. If we will broadcast the Interest of calling Figure 3. CCN Forwarding Engine
faisal in our connected circle, then so many or
multiple faisals will appear, and we are only FIB (Forwarding Information Base) is the
interested in faisal studying with us in our class. So to central data structure in CCN nodes. This data
overcome this problem we will call faisal in a structure is more complex and holds the more level of
hierarchical way. Hierarchical naming for faisal will responsibility as compared with remaining other two
be: faisal/student/maju-university/research- data structure. FIB is basically concerned with the
methodoly/MS. Now if we will broadcast this routing issues. All the routing wisdom is gained by
hierarchical name in our connected circle, then exact the FIB. Interest Packet consults the FIB, in order to
requirement will be fulfilled and exact content or get the information or guidance for its next journey.
information will be received. This same hierarchical FIB is only consulted in two conditions. Firstly, when
naming of content is used in CCN model. Every any interest packet is not consumed at this node to
content is called with its hierarchical name in the transform data packet. Secondly, if same data packet
CCN model. In the CCN model, this naming can be has not already been requested in past through this
thought as: if we are interested in any mp3 song. If node. Then FIB is consulted for the Interest packet in
will broadcast in our interest packet, mp3 song, then order to get the guidance about routing of Interest
there are so many songs present in our connected packet. FIB is basically the database consists of
network. We will call the required data in a information regarding whole network or maximum
available contents in the network. This information is regarding requesting interface, gives the liberty and
stored in base, through various Routing Protocols ease to overcome the issues relevant to routing of
proposed for CCN, for example NLSR (Named Data data packets and also the routing of interest packets
Link State Routing Protocol) [8] or COBRA (Content for same data packets in future. In future, whenever
Drive, Bloom Filter Based, Intra Domain Routing any other node in the network wished to access the
Algorithm) [9]. same content and passes through the same node and
if the requested data has not been cached in content
CS (Content Store) is another important data store after first initial interest packet. The information
structure in CCN. Every CCN node is equipped with of this requesting node will also be recorded in
this data structure. Content Store is basically the data pending interest table along with the information of
storage medium present at every node in CCN. It is node requested first. This feature of pending interest
responsible to store the latest update copy of data in table, permits the built in multicasting feature in
two ways. Firstly, it will store the original data, CCN. When the data packet will be received at
related to the carrying node. Secondly, it stores the intermediate node and cached in content store and
copy of data accessed or retrieved through it. After will also be forwarded towards all the interfaces
receiving Interest Packet at any node, the very first recorded in the pending interest table for the same
component consulted is the content store. It is data item.
checked in the content store, that the requested data
item through interest packet, is available at content Consider an example of CCN network
store or not. If the requested data item is present in architecture, consists of 10 nodes. Node 1 requested
local content store, then the interest packet is any data item and broadcasted the Interest Packet to
consumed by the node, and is transformed into its neighbor nodes. Suppose node 1 is only connected
requested data packet. If the requested data packet is with node 2. Interest packet is received at node 2,
not present at local content store, then the requesting first the content store at node 2 is checked to confirm
face or the face, from which the interest packet is whether the requested data item is present at local
received, is recorded in PIT (Pending Interest Table). node or not. If the data item will be present at the
And FIB (Forwarding Information Base) is consulted local node, then the interest packet will be consumed
in order to make a decision for routing of received at node 2 and will be transformed into data packet.
Interest Packet. And node 2 will send the requested data packet to
node 1. Suppose node 2 does not have the copy of
PIT (Pending Interest Table) is another requested data item. Then the Pending Interest Table
important data structure in CCN. Every CCN is will be consulted at node 2. Pending Interest Table
equipped with this data structure. Pending Interest will be consulted firstly, to confirm that, the same
Table is basically plays very important and critical data item has been requested earlier or not through
role in the functionality of CCN architecture. node 2. If the same data item has been requested
Whenever, an interest packet regarding requested earlier from any other node through node 2, then the
required data is received at any CCN node. The information of requesting face of that node will must
availability of requested data is checked in Content be present in the pending interest table. And the
Store. If the requested data is not present in the local information of node 1 requesting interface will then
content store then the interest packet is forwarded be recorded along with that information in the
towards next nodes. And the interface at which the pending interest table. Suppose that no other node has
interest packet has been forwarded is stored in been requested the same data item through node 2.
Pending Interest Table. One additional entry along Then the information of node 1 requesting interface
with this interface is also recorded in pending interest will be recorded individually in the pending interest
table. The additional entry is the information about table. And the Forwarding Information Base will be
the requesting interface, from which the interest consulted in order to route the received Interest
packet has been received. Both theses entries are Packet at node 2. The interest packet will be
linked with each other, and both of them represents forwarded to other CCN nodes in the network, and
one another in a systematic way. The information will wait for receiving data packet. The information
 (Interest
about forwarding interface of interest packet will also Packet
be recorded along with requesting interface in the Sent )
pending interest table. The same procedures will be
applied to other intermediate CCN nodes. And then
the interest packet will arrive the node carrying the
requested data item. Suppose Node 10 carries the
requested data item. At node 10, interest packet will
be consumed and will be transformed into data Yes
packet. Data packet will be replied back at the Data
requesting interface. That intermediate node will also Packet
Present
forward the data packet at the requesting interface, in Local
recording in its own pending interest table. And also CS
cache the copy of data item in its content store also.
After forwarding back the requested data item, the
entry about the requesting interface will be deleted in
pending interest table. All the intermediate nodes will
behave in the similar manner, and will store the latest No
copy of requested data item in their content stores
and removes the entry of requesting interface from Record the
their pending interest tables. In this way, the Entry for entry with
Content
Yes existing
requested data item will arrive at node 2. Node 2 will entry in PIT
in PIT
also store the copy of data item in its own content
store. And will forward the data item towards node 1
and delete the entry from its pending interest table.

Following steps represents the sequence of No

iterations at every CCN node:
Record Entry
1. Check the local content store, to confirm the
of requesting
availability of requested data item. interface in
2. Check the pending interest table, in order to PIT

check whether the same data item has been

requested by any other node or not.
3. Consult the Forwarding Information Base in Consult FIB
order to route the received interest packet. for Routing
No

Forward the
The flow of data structure retrievals is also in Interest
flow chart represented in figure 4 Packet

Figure 4 Flowchart of CCN

 III- FUTURE WORK 6. H. Balakrishnan, K. Lakshminaryanan, S.
Ratnasamy, S. Shenker, I. Stocia and M.
In this paper we have considered the complete Walfish. A Layered Naming Architecture
architecture of CCN (Content Centric Networking). for the Internet. In SIGCOMM, 2008
The naming scheme, the type of naming and the 7. Van Jacobson, Diana K. Smetters, James D.
representation of naming is covered. The data Thornton, Michael F. Plass, Nicholas H.
structures involved in the Content Centric Networks, Briggs, Rebecca L. Baynard, Palo Alto
and their procedures and actions are covered. In Research Center USA, Networking Named
future we are thinking to cover the routing issues and Content
routing solutions for the Content Centric Networks. 8. A.K.M Mahmoud ul Haque, Syed Obaid
Our primary concern and focus will be Forwarding Amin, Adam Alyyan, Beichuan Zhang,
Information Base. We aim to gratify only the Lixia Zhang, Lan Wang, NLSR: Named
Forwarding Information Base only in depth. We will Data Link State Routing Protocol
consider various existing routing protocols and will 9. Michele Tonellai, Luigi Alfredo Grieco,
propose some new solution in the field of routing in Gennaro Boggia and Kostas Pentikousis,
Content Centric Networks. COBRA: Lean Intra Domain Routing in
NDN
IV- CONCLUSION

Traditionally Networks were thought as a

communication between two machines or to share the
resources of networks. Complete network is totally
location dependent, and TCP/IP plays the vital role in
order to cater the requirements and needs of the
users. With the changing demands and requirements
of the users, it became difficult to manage all
requirements with the help of TCP/IP. CCN (Content
Centric Networks) presents the paradigm shift in the
world of networks. Satisfies the changing demands
and requirements of current users in a very dynamic
way. CCN architecture overruns the traditional IP
networks in various ways. It offers Strategy and
Security Layers which accommodates the users to use
various mediums of communication simultaneously
and at higher improved security.

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