Application Areas of Information-Centric Networking: State-of-the-Art and Challenges

The Information-Centric Network (ICN) paradigm has gained popularity since its inception. The host-based IP networks were not primarily designed to handle scenarios that it is exposed to on the current Internet. In that direction lot of research has been happening to develop applications such as web applications, multimedia streaming, the Internet of Things, Wireless Sensor Networks and Vehicular networks. In addition, new ICN application areas, such as social networks, Industrial IoTs, etc., are emerging. This review investigates the possible application areas and their deficiencies evenly, broadly and at a certain level of depth with focus on security, scalability, IP interoperability, modularity and other application specific aspects. We discuss the current state-of-the-art in these ICN-based applications and the existing limitations. A comparative analysis of the literary works available is performed to understand the research gaps available, and a detailed discussion of the challenges in each area is provided. We conclude the review with future challenges in the application development with the ICN paradigm to reap its architectural benefits.