Performance analysis of open-source Linux-based HIP implementations

Traditional Internet architecture allows a host and its location to be identified using only Internet Protocol (IP) address. Host Identity Protocol (HIP) separates the dual role of IP addresses as the locator and the identifier and introduces a Host Identity (HI) name space, based on a public key security infrastructure. This change allows applications to use HIs instead of IP addresses at the transport layer, hence offering secure host mobility and multihoming capabilities. This modification to traditional Internet architecture raises concerns from both industries and researchers as to what extent it will affect the ideal performance of a network. In this article, we offer a performance evaluation of two open-source Linux-based HIP implementations, HIP on Linux (HIPL) and OpenHIP. Performance is evaluated on throughput (TCP and UDP), jitter, and end-to-end latency. To account for a heterogeneous mix of network types, different network scenarios were set up on a real world testbed. Based on the outcome of the experiments, we highlight the limitations of each implementation as well as their suitable industrial applications. We further suggest possible modifications to improve the performance of each approach.