CLIP: Content labeling in IPv6, a layer 3 protocol for information centric networking

A great deal of research has been done in the last several years on information centric networking (ICN), where named data items, rather than end host identities, are the primary routable entities. Several prototypes have been proposed, but all face daunting concerns in the areas of performance, complexity, backwards compatibility, and user security and privacy. We propose a protocol which creates globally-unique data item names and embeds these names, plus associated metadata, into an IPv6 header. We then show how this allows the use of the IPsec suite of protocols to mitigate user privacy and security concerns. Next, we show that using RFC-compliant IPv6 datagrams as the named content allows content routing to be done using standard gateway protocols and also ensures backwards compatibility with unmodified networks. Lastly, we give an example of how the CLIP header´s structure will simplify the design of automatic caches in the network.