data via NDN by leveraging storage on
their devices and intermittent connectivity to pass content around, without leaving traces of where the data
originated. Any NDN node with access to multiple networks, for example, wireless and wired connections,
can bridge those networks by forwarding and/or satisfying Interests,
increasing the number of paths data
can take to a consumer.
31 Moreover,
namespaces can be locally scoped or
encrypted, which can render NDN’s
data exchange mechanisms and decentralized communication capabilities even more tolerant of disrupted
connectivity than IP.
Today, blocking a small number
of well-known websites is an effective
censorship scheme.
6 Enabling decentralized communication at the lowest
layers of the network can allow users
to route around censorship, creating
positive impacts for free speech. For
example, NDN would enable a group
of phones at a protest to use data
muling—a combination of data storage and
direct device-to-device communication
in which the phones carry data (and
keys) from place to place rather than
relying on infrastructure that might be
subject to global surveillance. Individually signed packets of a sensitive video,
or the keys to verify that video, can be reassembled by any device based on common naming conventions, and verified
as being from the same publisher using data signatures. Such peer-to-peer
muling can occur in IP networks, but is
more complicated at the network and
application layers. In addition, NDN
content producers could encapsulate
or encrypt data names to hide traffic
and thwart attempts to block content
based on its name.
NDN’s emphasis on data signatures
could complicate a social mechanism
often relied upon to protect free speech:
anonymous content production. Therefore, NDN’s improvements for free
speech must be weighed against its
challenges to anonymous speech.
Improvements for trust and secur-
ity. NDN requires all data be signed so
that applications can verify the pub-
lisher of received content. In the Io T
scenario, each networked device in a
home would sign content, enabling
applications such as lighting control
or energy monitoring services to ver-
response data exchange. Stored named
data can serve future requests, unlike
destination-specific IP packets. And
because data can be served from any-
where, it must be signed to protect its
provenance and integrity.
An NDN Scenario:
The Internet of Things
A use case that illustrates the possibilities of NDN is the Internet of Things
(IoT). The IoT concept envisions
every device, and many objects, as
network-enabled, context-aware (to
varying extents), and often integrated
with Web and mobile applications.
We introduce this case, which we will
draw on throughout the article, to
orient readers to the ways in which
NDN’s technical changes shape a
wide variety of social issues in a realistic application environment.
In an NDN IoT, names provide a
richer and more versatile approach to
addressing potentially billions of devices across the world, and the architecture’s use of cryptographic signatures
for each packet provide a valuable security building block not present in IP.
NDN enables the Internet-connected
“things,” and the data they create and
consume, to be addressed by one or
more application-specific names at the
network layer, often without requiring
further middleware or gateways.
3, 8, 28
For example, a manufacturer-assigned
name, such as /local/appliance/
kitchen/toaster/Black&Decker/<serial_
number>, might be used to address a
kitchen appliance from another device in the same smart home. That appliance would be configured in this
namespace at the factory and respond
to Interests in its prefix /local/appliance using a power line or wireless
interface. In a simple scenario, other
devices in a home (for example, a user’s phone) could issue Interests on a
regular basis. Interests for /local/appliance would be used to discover the
device when first plugged in; then, its
more specific name could be used for
direct communication. In this case,
NDN enables applications to use the
network layer directly to discover
nearby devices in these well-known
namespaces (for example, /local/appliance), without needing the devices
to be connected to the global Internet.
At the same time, they share the same
network layer protocol as all other
NDN Internet applications, providing
opportunities for straightforward in-
tegration with local or global Web ap-
plications, using data signatures and
encryption-based access control for se-
curity. This example in the Io T domain
illustrates that semantic classification
can facilitate discovery of new devices
on a network—from a new lightbulb to a
digital television—using names.
Policy and Social Implications
Of NDN’s Components
By fundamentally altering the concepts used to design networked applications and the components available to build them, a transition from
IP to NDN could impact policy issues
including free speech, security, privacy, content regulation, and network
neutrality. Some changes are difficult
to predict because Internet infrastructure purposefully provides adaptable
mechanisms and interpretive flexibility.
12 But even during the design stage,
we can articulate a few important
ways NDN would likely change the
nature of Internet interactions. Here,
we explore how the NDN architecture
could improve free speech; improve
trust and security; both improve and
challenge privacy; complicate content
regulation by governments and industry; and introduce open questions for
network neutrality.
Improvements to free speech. As
the IoT example illustrates, NDN facilitates the development of environments where local devices can transmit
content without reliance upon global
infrastructure providers. Data packets
can be stored and republished by anyone using any device, expanding the
options for data dissemination and enhancing and expanding opportunities
for communication and free speech.
Consider a regime with authoritarian tendencies that allows Internet access but constrains what is published.
NDN makes it easier than IP to share
data via alternative communications
paths and opportunistic connectivity
(toasters and phones as well as laptops and routers), without global infrastructure or complex intermediate
services providing indirection or ano-nymization. Users moving in cars or
planes or people with ad hoc wireless
on their mobile devices can exchange