Named Data Networking

The Internet of things (IoT) is commonly perceived as the mere extension of the current Internet to our physical world to interconnect an unprecedented number of sensors/actuators, referred to as things. In this Internet architectural context, some IoT services are currently offered by several Telecom operators of the Arab World such as tracking services, near field communication, and surveillance, e-health and security services. However, the current Internet TCP/IP protocol suite has reached its limits and is deemed inappropriate to deal with the stringent challenges imposed by the heterogeneity as well as the number of these constrained devices. On the other hand, the Named Data Networking (NDN) has recently received a lot of attention as a potential Information-Centric Networking (ICN) architecture for the future Internet. The NDN paradigm, relying on location-independent naming, in-network caching, name-based routing, multicast, anycast, mobility and self-secured content, has a great potential to efficiently address and solve the current seminal IP-based IoT architecture issues and requirements. In this paper, we first overview the current research and development progress in ICN, then we conduct a comparative study of the relevant ICN proposals and platforms, and finally, we discuss the suitability of the NDN as a promising lever architecture for IoT.