Flow-aware traffic control for a content-centric network

The content-centric networking (CCN) paradigm proposed by PARC holds considerable promise as the architecture for the future Internet but remains incomplete. In this paper we argue that it is necessary to supplement CCN with mechanisms enabling controlled sharing of network bandwidth by concurrent flows. Traffic control is necessary to ensure low latency for conversational and streaming flows and to realize satisfactory bandwidth sharing between elastic flows. These objectives can be realized using “network neutral” traffic controls based on per-flow fair bandwidth sharing. The paper describes necessary CCN mechanisms and discusses the strategies to be implemented by end systems and routers. A simulation-based performance evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed mechanisms and and the impact of possible strategies. We describe our experience in implementing some of the mechanisms using the CCNx prototype software.