Question 15/13 - Data-aware networking in future networks
(Continuation of part of Q.21/13)
Motivation
The dominant use of a network has become exchange and retrieval of data. The amount of data accessible from networks is exploding due to increase in WEB-based services such as Social Networking Services (SNS), video services, and network attached machines. The principal paradigm is no longer host-to-host communication as in the current Internet architecture. Instead, an increasing demand for highly scalable and efficient distribution of content is a motivation for the architectures that focus on information objects, their properties, and user interest in the network to achieve efficient and reliable distribution of such objects (also called the Information-Centric Networking (ICN)* concept).
Recommendation ITU-T Y.3001 has identified data awareness as one of the four objectives of Future Networks (FNs), and describes data awareness as follows: FNs are recommended to have architecture optimized to handle enormous amounts of data in a distributed environment, and are recommended to enable users to access desired data safely, easily, quickly, and accurately, regardless of their location. In the context of this Recommendation, "data" is not limited to specific data types like audio or video content, but describe all information accessible on a network.
FNs will bring about the need to shift from the current location-based and host-based network architecture to those more appropriate for use in a world of exploding data storage, increased performance of processing power, bandwidth, and the increased number of network users. From an architecture point of view, this strongly relates as to how to identify an information object, and therefore to the structure of identifiers, as well as mapping to underlying objects. Data delivery models based on such novel identifiers are intensively studied these days, as are non-IP-based architectures such as routing and data handling based on identifiers of data, as well as other approaches such as data processing in a network.
Important topics for the data awareness properties of FN's include: naming and addressing (how to name information objects, how to represent location information), routing and resolution (deciding on how to forward "interest" in information and actual information objects, whether and how to resolve information object names to lower layer identifiers during that process), resource management (implications of in-network caching and paradigms such as receiver-orientation to resource sharing, congestion control etc.) and security (privacy, data protection and key distribution have to be adapted to the new communication models).
Recommendations that specify framework, service scenarios, requirements, and architecture of data aware networking fall under the responsibility of this question.
Question
Study items to be considered include, but are not limited to:
Requirements for accessing enormous amount of data in a safe, easy, quick, and accurate manner
Analysis of gaps between data aware networking and existing standards and/or technologies
Architectures for data aware networking
Mechanisms for identifying information objects, including structure of identifiers and their mapping to underlying objects
Mechanisms for efficiently discovering, routing, caching, disseminating, and securing data in data aware networking
Migration from current IP-based network to data aware networking.
Tasks
Tasks include, but are not limited to:
Produce document(s) on framework, or general overview of data aware networking including identifiers
Produce new Recommendations on requirements, functional architecture and mechanisms of data aware networking.
Relationships
Recommendations:
Questions:
Study Groups:
Standardization bodies, fora and consortia:
