4WARD Networking of Information 4WARD WP6

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential Networking of Information Telephony Interconnecting wires 4WARD Future Internet Interconnecting information Internet Interconnecting nodes Future Internet Folding Point Termin al Forwa rder Termin al Evolution Virtualization of network resources

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 3 Main objective  The objective is to investigate architectural models for networks were the focus is moved from nodes to information objects.

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 4 Benefits  Efficient large-scale content distribution for any application –Caching can be built-in from the beginning –No need for special configuration or interception of requests as in today's networks  Performance and reliability are improved –Information can be retrieved from the closest available source –Gives more flexibility in delivering information compared to the end-to- end reliable byte-stream Especially important in heterogeneous wireless environments with frequent disruptions in communication Better opportunity to utilise high-bandwidth access when available Also applicable for non-dissemination applications

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential Comparing today’s overlay networking  Common dissemination infrastructure for all applications, including network support  Network awareness of application needs H P2P H H H H H H H Network P2P Overlay H P2P DNN H H H H H H H H H Dissemination Network API

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 6 Scenarios  1. Content distribution –VoD, Live TV, personalised content  2. Augmented Internet – Real-world objects –Linking real world objects in the virtual information world  3. Serverless web –Handling the slashdot effect, serving content in the local vicinity, creating content collaboratively  4. Content delivery in a mobile scenario –Retrieving information when connectivity is intermittent, efficiently utilising high-bitrate access when available  5. Network & Call control and management –Network monitoring in NetInf; Call control for services with real-time constraints

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 7 Functionality needed by the scenarios  Information object model –including object meta-data, multiple representations at the bit-level, versioning, support for live streaming and support for physical objects  Information object integrity –Object identification and verification of authenticity independent of its location  Object search –Google for objects  Object lookup/resolution –Mechanisms for finding the “best” copy of the object, given a name or identifier for the object, private scope as well as public/global scope  Object distribution –Mechanisms for information object routing and caching, including replication and synchronisation, and optimisation of delivery  Object storage –Management of storage for objects

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 8 NetInf architecture overview NetInf User A NetInf User B NetInf User C Google for NetInf objects Operate on object by ID Locate Information Object Locate Bit-level Object NetInf machinery Transport Bit-level objects Locate Real World Object Real World Object tracker NetInf Object operations Create ID Publish ID Remove ID Store/update object Get object Locate object Delete object Store Bit-level objects Move Bit-level object to/from location Real World User Real World Objects Real World Objects updates

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential Information modelling  What are the basic objects of our NetInf architecture? –Do we, with networking of information mean the objects storing the information (syntax) or the semantics of the information, e.g. the difference between the message contained in a text vs. the media it is stored on (e.g. tape, book,... )

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 10 Terminology: Objects  Distinguish between objects at two abstraction levels:  Information object –Piece of information with some meaning (semantics)‏ a book, a movie, a picture, an , etc –Can have metadata –Represented by zero or more bit-level objects –Can have hierarchy Movie has frames, book has pages, etc  Bit-level object –Sequence of unique bits –Can be represented by its hash (SHA-1, MD-5, etc)‏ –Can have hierarchy Corresponding to Information object hierarchy

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential New abstractions  A new communication abstraction (API) supporting communication of application data objects. Possibilities include publish/subscribe, storage system,... This could be one or multiple abstractions.  A lower abstraction (interface) to the "bit piping" infrastructure. Something to replace today’s "packet over links between nodes" abstraction. This could be something like a "light path" (optical WDM) or a broadcast abstraction.

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 12 NetInf service API  API that provides NetInf service to applications  Operates on Information objects by ID and context –“ID” is the ID of the object –“context” specifies a set of contexts where the object is explicitly or implicitly published Can directly be a locator where a copy can be found Can be a directory service keeping track of that object  Operations –create/publish/remove ID –store/update object –get/locate object –delete object

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 13 NetInf lower interface  Service for transporting/moving a bit-level object to/from location –GET/PUT operations, or “move from A to B”  Interfaces to –Transport of bit-level objects all kinds of things, including http, TCP/IP, IP multicast and of course Generic Paths! –Storage of bit-level objects

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 14 Object model – indirection layers info-obj obj container locator1locator2 Bit-level Objects Higher-level semantics Copies or chunks available at certain (recursive) containers, e.g. node Mobility/ multi-homing

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 15 Object model – physical entities Info-obj VirtualEntity A1A1 A3A3 A2A2 ID 123 Info-obj Real world Internet Object in the real world PhysicalEntity Related information objects Virtual repre- sentation on the Internet incl. physical attributes and unique ID

© 4WARD Consortium Confidential PM/Slide 16 Summary and status of work  We are design a new network architecture from an information-centric approach –Rather than from a device-centric approach  The information is in focus –Not from where we get it  Brings several benefits –Better large-scale distribution efficiency –Better performance an reliability (also for non-dissemination applications)‏  Ongoing work on information modelling, object naming and the architectural framework  Performance simulation and prototyping just started