Information-centric networking

Information-centric networking (ICN) is an approach to evolve the Internet infrastructure away from a host-centric paradigm based on perpetual connectivity and the end-to-end principle, to a network architecture in which the focal point is “named information” (or content or data). In this paradigm, connectivity may well be intermittent, end-host and in-network storage can be capitalized upon transparently, as bits in the network and on data storage devices have exactly the same value, mobility and multi access are the norm and anycast, multicast, and broadcast are natively supported. Data becomes independent from location, application, storage, and means of transportation, enabling in-network caching and replication. The expected benefits are improved efficiency, better scalability with respect to information/bandwidth demand and better robustness in challenging communication scenarios.

The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is sponsoring a research group on Information-Centric Networking Research which serves as a forum for the exchange and analysis of ICN research ideas and proposals. Current and future work items and outputs are managed on the .

There are several venues for ongoing discussions about ICN. Dagstuhl seminars have taken place in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016.

Prior to 2014, ICN workshops were held at ACM’s SIGCOMM conferences (2011, 2012, and 2013).

Starting in Sept. 2014, ACM created a dedicated annual conference on ICN (ICN-2014. ICN-2015, ICN-2016, ICN-2017, ICN-2018).

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