IC-MCN: An architecture for an information-centric mobile converged network

Rapid increases in bandwidth-intensive communications on mobile devices is challenging the Internet's scalability. Mobile converged networking, with its threefold convergence of technology, service, and network, is receiving significant attention as a potential solution to this problem. Unfortunately, proposed mobile convergence approaches are limited by the prevailing IP-based Internet infrastructure. The inherently host-centric IP lacks scalability to accommodate an explosion in multimedia content traffic, especially in the context of mobile convergence. Information-centric networking, a new networking paradigm, has been proposed to overcome IP's scalability problems. By routing requests and data using content names instead of host addresses, information-centric networking enables the exploitation of in-network caching, multi-homing, and multiple radio technologies, and avoids the restrictions of a host-centric foundation. We believe that information- centric networking can play a central role in a mobile converged network. We use named data networking, a popular information- centric networking architecture, as the foundation for a novel information-centric mobile converged network (IC-MCN). Our architecture allows different networks, multiple interfaces, and in-network caching to all be leveraged effectively by mobile devices. We discuss the details of the architecture, identify its advantages, and explore open challenges to the creation of a practical IC-MCN for the future.