Named Data Networking for tactical communication environments

Tactical communication environments are characterized by frequent disruptions, intermittent connectivity, and low bandwidth (DIL) due to the unfavorable, unfriendly, and sometimes very dynamic network conditions. Nevertheless, there is still an expectation that tactical applications can communicate seamlessly despite the challenging communication environment. In this paper, we propose and evaluate the use of Named Data Networking (NDN) in tactical communication environments. NDN has inherent functionalities that makes it more robust in a DIL environment in comparison to IP. In this work, we consider a notional tactical environment and compare network performance under IP versus NDN. In our evaluation, we consider different levels of network disruption and different data dissemination mechanisms. Our results show that NDN can provide significant improvement gains in network performance that is superior to IP, under similar network conditions.