The Road Ahead for Networking: A Survey on ICN-IP Coexistence Solutions
Mauro Conti, Ankit Gangwal, LAL C., HASSAN M., Eleonora Losiouk
Abstract
In recent years, the usage model of the Internet \nhas changed, pushing researchers towards the design of the \nInformation-Centric Networking (ICN) paradigm as a possible \nreplacement of the existing architecture. Even though both \nAcademia and Industry have investigated the feasibility and \neffectiveness of ICN, achieving the complete replacement of the \nInternet Protocol (IP) is a challenging task: (i) the process \ninvolves multiple parties, such as Internet Service Providers \n(ISPs), that need to coordinate among each other; (ii) it requires \nan indefinite amount of time to update hardware and software \nof network components; and (iii) it is a high risk goal that \nmight introduce unexpected complications. Thus, the process \nof replacing the current Internet will inevitably lead towards a \nperiod of coexistence between the old and the new architectures. \nGiven the urgency of the problem, this transition phase will \nhappen very soon and people should address it in a smooth way. \nSome research groups have already addressed the coexistence \nby designing their own architectures, but none of those is the \nfinal solution to move towards the future Internet considering the \nunaltered state of the networking. To design such architecture, the \nresearch community needs now a comprehensive overview of the \nexisting solutions that have so far addressed the coexistence. The \npurpose of this paper is to reach this goal by providing the first \ncomprehensive survey and classification of the coexistence architectures according to their features (i.e., deployment approach, \ndeployment scenarios, addressed coexistence requirements and \nadditional architecture or technology used) and evaluation parameters (i.e., challenges emerging during the deployment and \nthe runtime behaviour of an architecture). We believe that this \npaper will finally fill the gap required for moving towards the \ndesign of the final coexistence architecture.