Supporting dual-mode forwarding in content-centric network

Information-centric networking (ICN) aims to replace current host-centric IP architecture with one based on efficient, secure, and reliable dissemination of information. This paper extends content-centric networking (CCN), one of the ICN architectures, for dual-mode forwarding, wherein, the forwarding plane distinguishes sharable traffic from non-sharable traffic characterized by its global shareability. The proposed extensions allow sharable traffic to be forwarded in a non-expedite mode following the packet processing of CCN, while non-sharable traffic is forwarded in the proposed expedite mode subjected to fast-path forwarding only involving the FIB. We enable this dual-mode forwarding using a new header which optionally includes a source-object name. We support our proposal with simulation results where the benefit of separating these two types of traffic in the forwarding plane results in better utilization of content store, pending interest table, and improved user QoE for sharable applications in terms of content delivery latency.