ID-Based Communication Framework in Future Networks

The current Internet has followed a location-based communication paradigm, where IP addresses play a significant role not only in locating hosts or in the routing system, but also in the identification of hosts and services. The location-based, host-centric Internet architecture is not efficient and scalable for newly emerged mobile communications in heterogeneous networks and devices. Therefore, research and development of future networks has been shifting to the identifier (ID)-based communication paradigm where IDs, not only the locators, of communication objects, such as devices, users, contents, or services, play significant roles in networking. These IDs are used for the purpose of identification, authentication, and discovery of the communication objects, as well as delivery of services. In this paper, we first present a generalized ID-based communication framework and then show how the recently proposed ID/locator split-based networking and information-centric networking architectures fit into the framework. We then summarize key capabilities and technical challenges brought about by these new proposals, and also present some approaches to possible solutions.