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Architectural Considerations of ICN using Name Resolution Service
draft-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations-01

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Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 9236.
Authors Jungha Hong , Taewan You , Yong-Geun Hong
Last updated 2019-03-11 (Latest revision 2018-10-17)
Replaces draft-hong-icnrg-nrs-requirements
RFC stream Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)
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IETF conflict review conflict-review-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations, conflict-review-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations, conflict-review-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations, conflict-review-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations, conflict-review-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations, conflict-review-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations, conflict-review-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations, conflict-review-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations, conflict-review-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations
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draft-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations-01
ICN Research Group                                               J. Hong
Internet-Draft                                                    T. You
Intended status: Informational                                 Y-G. Hong
Expires: September 12, 2019                                         ETRI
                                                          March 11, 2019

   Architectural Considerations of ICN using Name Resolution Service
               draft-irtf-icnrg-nrsarch-considerations-01

Abstract

   This document discusses architectural considerations and implications
   of Information-Centric Networking (ICN) related to the usage of the
   Name Resolution Service (NRS).  It describes how ICN architectures
   may change and what implications are introduced within the ICN
   routing system when NRS is integrated into ICN.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 12, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of

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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Conventions and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Background  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Implications of NRS in ICN  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  ICN Architectural Considerations for NRS  . . . . . . . . . .   4
     5.1.  Name resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     5.2.  Protocols and Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     5.3.  Routing System  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     6.1.  Name Space Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     6.2.  NRS System  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     6.3.  NRS Protocols and Messages  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

1.  Introduction

   Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is an approach to evolve the
   Internet infrastructure to directly access Named Data Objects (NDOs)
   by its name, i.e., the name of NDO is directly used to route the
   request to the data object.  Such name based routing in ICN poses a
   number of issues, which are not solved yet in ICN.  These issues
   includes global scalability of routing, producer mobility, off-path
   cache, etc.  In order to address these issues, the Name Resolution
   Service (NRS) has been integrated into several ICN projects and
   literature [Afanasyev][Zhang2][Ravindran][SAIL][MF][Bayhan].

   This document describes how ICN architectures may change and what
   implications are introduces within the ICN routing system when NRS is
   integrated into ICN.  It also discusses ICN architectural
   considerations for an NRS.  In other words, the scope of this
   document includes considerations in the veiw of the ICN architecture
   and routing system when integrating NRS into ICN.  However, it does
   not include the NRS discussion, itself, which is presented in
   [NRSrequirements].

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2.  Conventions and Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3.  Background

   The name based routing in ICN can be helpful to address a number of
   challenges, such as global scalability of routing, producer mobility,
   and off-path caching in ICN.  In order to address these challenges,
   an NRS has been integrated into several ICN projects and literature:

   o  Routing scalability : In ICN, application names identifying
      contents are used directly for packet delivery, so ICN routers run
      a name-based routing protocol to build namebased routing and
      forwarding tables.  Similar to the scalability challenge of IP
      routing, if non-aggregatable name prefixes are injected to the
      Default Route Free Zone (DFZ) of ICN, they would be driving the
      growth of the DFZ routing table size.  Thus, applying an NRS can
      be a feasible solution to keep the routing table size under
      control, where the NRS resolves name prefixes which do not exist
      in the DFZ forwarding table into globally routable prefixes such
      as one proposed in NDN [Afanasyev].  Another approach deal with
      routing scalability is the Multi-level Distributed Hash
      Table (MDHT) used in NetInf [Dannewitz].  It provides name-based
      anycast routing that can support a non-hierarchical namespace can
      be adopted on a global scale [Dannewitz2].

   o  Producer mobility : In ICN, if a producer moves into a different
      authority domain or network location, the request for a content
      produced by the moving producer with the origin name would be
      hardly forwarded to the moving producer's new location.
      Especially, in a hierarchical name scheme, producer mobility
      support is much harder than in a flat name scheme since the
      routing tables in broader area need to be updated according to the
      producer movement.  Therefore, various ICN architectures such as
      NetInf [Dannewitz] and MobilityFirst [MF] have adopted NRS to
      tackle the producer's location.

   o  Off-path caching : Caching in-network is considered a basic
      architectural component of an ICN architecture and caching
      approaches can be categorized into off-path caching and on-path
      caching based on the location of caches in relation to the
      forwarding path from the original server to a consumer.  Off-path
      caching, also referred as content replication or content storing,
      aims at replicating content in various locations within a network
      in order to increase availability, where the caching locations may

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      not be lying along the content forwarding path.  Thus, finding
      off-path cached objects is not trivial in name-based routing of
      ICN.  In order to support off-path caches, the locations of
      replicas are usually advertised into a name-based routing system
      or into NRS such as in [Bayhan].

   This document discusses architectural considerations and implications
   of ICN when NRS is integrated into ICN to solve such challenges due
   to the name-based routing in ICN.

4.  Implications of NRS in ICN

   In general, NRS would not be mandatory in an ICN architecture if the
   name-based routing system can be scalable enough to timely reflect
   the optimal location of requested content in the routing table.
   However, due to the unlimited size of content namespace, it is not
   easy to achieve such a scalable routing system in near future.
   Therefore, the adoption of an NRS is a design choice for making ICN
   routing and forwarding scalable.  Integration of NRS would change the
   ICN architecture at least with respect to procedures, latency, and
   security, which are described below.

   o  Procedure : When NRS is adopted into an ICN architecture, the
      procedure of the name resolution has to be integrated into ICN
      overall procedures.  For NRS integration, there are certain things
      that have to be decided such as where and how the name resolution
      task is performed.

   o  Latency : When NRS is adopted into an ICN architecture, the
      additional latency of the resolution obviously occurs in the
      routing and forwarding system.  Although the latency of the
      resolution is added, the total latency could be minimized if the
      nearest copies or off-path caches can be located by the NRS lookup
      procedure.  Additionally, there might be a trade-off between the
      resolution latency and inter-domain traffic reduction.

   o  Security : When NRS is adopted into an ICN architecture, security
      treats may increase.  Protection of the NRS system against attacks
      such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and authentication of
      name mapping records and related signaling messages would be
      challenging.

5.  ICN Architectural Considerations for NRS

   This section discusses the various items that have to be considered
   from the point of view of ICN architecture when it utilizes an NRS.
   These items are related with the name mapping records registration,

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   resolution, and update, protocols and messages, and integration with
   the routing system.

5.1.  Name resolution

   When an NRS is integrated into an ICN architecture, the followings
   related with the registration and resolution of name mapping records
   have to be considered.

   o  Who performs the name resolution?

   o  How is the name resolution performed?

   The name resolution in ICN can be performed by consumer, routers, or
   both.  Once it is decided where the name resolution will take place,
   it has to be considered how the name resolution will be performed.
   The name provided by a consumer might be always resolved to
   identifiers in a differnet namespace just like a DNS lookup.
   Conversely, an NRS is always needed to map names to a different
   namespace.

5.2.  Protocols and Semantics

   In order to develop a NRS system within a local ICN network domain or
   global ICN network domain, new protocols and semantics should be
   designed to manage and resolve names between different name spaces.

   One way of implementing an NRS is by extending the basic ICN TLV
   format and semantics [CCNxMessages] [CCNxSemantics].  For instance,
   name resolution and response messages can be implemented by defining
   new type fields in the Interest and Content Object messages
   [CCNxNRS].  Then it allows the ICN architecture to minimize
   implication of ICN architectural changes.  But NRS system cannot
   support more flexible and scalable designs cause to restrict basic
   ICN protocol and semantics.

   On the other hand, a NRS system can be implemented by using its own
   protocol and semantics like existing NRS systems, such as [Hong].
   For instance, the NRS protocol and messages can be implemented by
   using a RESTful API.  Then a NRS as application protocol can be
   operated independently from a basic ICN architecture, but an ICN
   architecture cannot be assisted with the routing protocol itself
   effectively.

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5.3.  Routing System

   It has to be considered how to process the information resolved by an
   NRS lookup.  The results of an NRS operation can be intended to be
   used just to construct tunnels resulting in NRS identifying tunnel
   endpoints.

   Another way to process the information resolved by an NRS lookup is
   to use it as routing hints in request messages.  In this case,
   request message needs to be re-written with the resolved information
   including the original name that was requested by a consumer to check
   the data integrity.

6.  Security Considerations

   When NRS is integrated into an ICN architecture, security threats
   shall be increased in various aspects such as followings.

6.1.  Name Space Separation

   In order to deploy an NRS on ICN architecture, ICN name spaces are
   separated into more than two name spaces.  Thus these name spaces
   should be mapped and managed securely.  According to the ICN research
   challenge [RFC7927], new name space can also provide an integrity
   verification function to authenticate its publishers.  In addition to
   the verification, binding two different name spaces should be
   securely required.

6.2.  NRS System

   NRS enables deployment of new entities to build distributed and
   scalable NRS systems.  Thus, the entities, e.g., mapping server that
   can be a mapping database, could be a single point of failure
   receiving malicious requests from innumerable adversaries like Denial
   of Service or Distributed Denial of service attacks.  Additionally,
   in order to communicate with the entities to build a NRS system, an
   initiator should rely on other NRS entities that are designed to be
   distributed deployed mapping servers in each network domain.  Because
   malicious entities should be involved in this communication to
   impersonate control functions.  Thus, NRS entities should trust each
   other and communications with them should be protected securely.

6.3.  NRS Protocols and Messages

   Regarding NRS messages, such as lookup, update, etc., if these
   messages are transported unauthenticated, an adversary can manipulate
   them and hijack the important communication to response or to store
   fake data.  Thus, the adversary can generate malicious traffic to be

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   redirected to victim hosts.  Therefore, security requirements for NRS
   should be considered to protect the ICN architecture as well as the
   NRS.

7.  Acknowledgements

   [TBD]

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC7927]  Kutscher, D., Ed., Eum, S., Pentikousis, K., Psaras, I.,
              Corujo, D., Saucez, D., Schmidt, T., and M. Waehlisch,
              "Information-Centric Networking (ICN) Research
              Challenges", RFC 7927, DOI 10.17487/RFC7927, July 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7927>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [Afanasyev]
              Afanasyev, A. et al., "SNAMP: Secure Namespace Mapping to
              Scale NDN Forwarding", IEEE Global Internet Symposium ,
              April 2015.

   [Zhang2]   Zhang, Y., "A Survey of Mobility Support in Named Data
              Networking", NAMED-ORIENTED MOBILITY: ARCHITECTURES,
              ALGORITHMS, AND APPLICATIONS(NOM) , 2016.

   [Ravindran]
              Ravindran, R. et al., "Forwarding-Label support in CCN
              Protocol", draft-ravi-icnrg-ccn-forwarding-label-01 , July
              2017.

   [SAIL]     "FP7 SAIL project.", http://www.sail-project.eu/ .

   [MF]       "NSF Mobility First project.",
              http://mobilityfirst.winlab.rutgers.edu/ .

   [Bayhan]   Bayhan, S. et al., "On Content Indexing for Off-Path
              Caching in Information-Centric Networks", ACM ICN ,
              September 2016.

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   [CCNxSemantics]
              Mosko, M., Solis, I., and C. Wood, "CCNx Semantics",
              draft-irtf-icnrg-ccnxsemantics-06 , October 2017.

   [CCNxMessages]
              Mosko, M., Solis, I., and C. Wood, "CCNx Messages in TLV
              Format", draft-irtf-icnrg-ccnxmessages-06 , October 2017.

   [CCNxNRS]  Hong, J. et al., "CCNx Extension for Name Resolution
              Service", draft-hong-icnrg-ccnx-nrs-02 , July 2018.

   [Hong]     Hong, J., Chun, W., and H. Jung, "Demonstrating a Scalable
              Name Resolution System for Information-Centric
              Networking", ACM ICN , September 2015.

   [NRSrequirements]
              Hong, J. et al., "Requirements for Name Resolution Service
              in ICN", draft-irtf-icnrg-nrs-requirements-01 , March
              2019.

   [Dannewitz]
              Dannewitz, C. et al., "Network of Information (NetInf)-An
              information centric networking architecture", Computer
              Communications vol. 36, no. 7, April 2013.

   [Dannewitz2]
              Dannewitz, C., DAmbrosio, M., and V. Vercellone,
              "Hierarchical DHT-based name resolution for Information-
              Centric Networks", Computer Communications vol. 36, no. 7,
              April 2013.

Authors' Addresses

   Jungha Hong
   ETRI
   218 Gajeong-ro, Yuseung-Gu
   Daejeon  34129
   Korea

   Email: jhong@etri.re.kr

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   Tae-Wan You
   ETRI
   218 Gajeong-ro, Yuseung-Gu
   Daejeon  34129
   Korea

   Email: twyou@etri.re.kr

   Yong-Geun Hong
   ETRI
   218 Gajeong-ro, Yuseung-Gu
   Daejeon  34129
   Korea

   Email: yghong@etri.re.kr

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