content, and a signature that binds the name to the data.

This architecture removes redundant retrieval of the same content. Since each data packet carries both a name and a signature, it can be cached in various points along the path. The project claims this facilitates content distribution, multicasting, transfer over poor connections, and support for mobility and disruption-tolerant delivery. Zhang claims that, regardless which node supplies the data, NDN gives packets provenance and integrity by binding their names and data together with the signatures.

Billions of tiny, moving targets

In contrast to NDN’s hierarchical naming structure, the FIA-funded MobilityFirst project describes a two-part naming system for “network objects,” which could be devices, people, internal networks, or even content. First, each network object is given a human-readable name; then, a name certification service (NCS) connects each of these to a Globally Unique ID (GUID). These GUIDs are unstructured and, as such, are unlike either IP addresses or MAC addresses. The result, according to MobilityFirst literature, is a network better suited for the billions of phones, wireless sensors, vehicles, and machines that have no fixed location.

When a network object becomes active, a global name resolution service (GNRS) dynamically binds its GUID to its current network address, or even to multiple network addresses.

Dipankar Raychaudhuri, the proj-
ect’s lead investigator and director
of the Wireless Information Network
Laboratory (WINLAB) at Rutgers Uni-
versity, claims that several of Mobility-
First’s special benefits come from the
combination of a new naming proce-
dure and a new routing layer. “We have
optimized the routing layer to do new
things like network storage functional-
ity,” he said, “and it does multi-hom-
ing and multi-casting very efficiently.
You could also put the [named] part of
our architecture on top of ordinary IP
for backward compatibility, but then
you do not have the benefit of some of
MobilityFirst’s features such as storage
routing, which can be useful for con-
tent and cloud applications.”
MobilityFirst bindings between
His group has developed a protocol
specification of ICN named Content-
Centric Networking (CCN), and with it
an open-source reference implemen-
tation, CCNx. “That codebase is used
by a couple of hundred institutions,”
said Edens. “It’s been ported to around
three dozen architectures that we know
of. Today, it is running on everything
from Raspberry Pis and BeagleBoards
and tiny home routers, all the way up to
really large cloud switches.”
Another project that originally used
the CCNx code is the Named Data Net-
working (NDN) project, an FIA-funded
effort led by the University of Califor-
nia, Los Angeles (UCLA) with coopera-
tion from eight other universities and
PARC. According to Lixia Zhang, pro-
fessor of computer science at UCLA
and a member of the board of the Asia
Future Internet Forum, the NDN proj-
ect aims to create ICN-style applica-
tions “to meet actual needs.”
One such need was found in an un-
likely place—the University’s School
of Theater, Film and Television. Said
Zhang, “When one of our investigators
tried to automate stage control stuff in
the early 2000s, he noticed that there
was a big gap between what applica-
tion developers would like and what
the Internet actually provides. When
he wanted to turn on the left upper-cor-
ner lights, the network said, ‘give me
a packet with an IP address and port
number, so I can send it to the destina-
tion,’ but he did not know or care about
IP addresses or port numbers; he want-
ed things to happen according to the
application’s semantics.”
NDN claims to accomplish this by
naming data rather than endpoints,
using a human readable and hierar-
chical name, much like a URL. A user
requests data by sending out an “Inter-
est packet;” for example, /tvchannel/
videos/favoriteshow/season1episode4.
mpg/2ndAct. Routers note the inter-
face of the Interest packet and for-
ward it according to information in a
“Forwarding Information Base” (FIB),
which is dynamically populated (FIBs
are unlike today’s routers in that they
store name prefixes instead of IP pre-
fixes). When the Interest packet reach-
es a location that holds the requested
data, that location returns the data to
the user along the same path. The data
packet contains the data’s name, its

Milestones
Computer
Science
Honors

CRA honoRs neumAnn’s DistinGuisheD seRViCe

Peter G. neumann, principal scientist at SrI International, has been named recipient of the computing research association (cra) 2013 Distinguished Service award, in recognition of contributions to advance computing during a half-century of service and dedication.

according to the cra, neumann “has led and driven the fields of computer-related risk and socially responsible use of information technologies.

These activities have had an
enormous impact on computer
science research and remain at
the forefront today.”
neumann has been with
SrI’s computer Science
Laboratory since 1971. he
moderates the acm risks
forum, and chairs both the acm
committee on computers and
Public Policy and the national
committee for voting Integrity.
neumann is a fellow of the
acm, IEEE, and aaaS, and is
also an SrI fellow.

suRA Cites VARDi foR ‘fosteRinG exCeLLenCe’

moshe Y. vardi, rice
University’s Karen Ostrum
George Distinguished Service
Professor in computational
Engineering, recently received
the 2013 Distinguished Scientist
award from the Southeastern
Universities research
association (SUra). The award
honors a research scientist
whose work fulfills the SUra
mission of “fostering excellence
in scientific research.”
Said charles W. Steger,
president of virginia Tech
and chair of the SUra council
of Presidents and Executive
committee, “as one of the top

40 cited computer scientists, Dr.
vardi’s contributions to the field
have enabled greater science to
occur, which distinguishes him
for this prestigious award.”
vardi is author or co-author
of more than 400 articles on
logic and computation, and
has co-authored two books.
he also is editor-in-chief of

Communications of the ACM.