Internet of Things via Named Data Networking: The support of push traffic

Abstract

Named Data Networking (NDN) is a promising information-centric future Internet architecture. Its innovative concepts, like named content, name-based routing and in-network caching, particularly suit the requirements of the Internet of Things (IoT), interconnecting billions of heterogeneous constrained objects. NDN supports receiver-driven communications and can easily enable IoT pull-based applications, e.g., to monitor sensors and to control actuators. However, NDN cannot natively allow devices to transmit unsolicited data, like alarms or status changes, unless to properly modify the semantics of exchanged packets and the forwarding strategy. In this paper we discuss how NDN can support reliable push-based IoT traffic, through the definition of three schemes conceived to be as much compliant as possible with the NDN tenets, while targeting efficiency in the usage of network and devices resources. A simple analytical framework provides preliminary quantitative insights into the proposed solutions and guidelines for future design.