Multipath Data Transport in Named Data Networking

Abstract

The idea of multipath transport is almost as old as the Internet itself. By using multiple paths, one can build a reliable system out of many unreliable components. Moreover, by distributing the load among multiple paths, one can significantly improve the performance of this system. In this dissertation, we investigate the use of multipath data transport in Named Data Networking (NDN), a novel Internet architecture. NDN’s core features (stateful forwarding, pervasive caching, multi-destination routing) make it inherently more capable of exploiting multiple paths than the current TCP/IP Internet. For example, in NDN, the same data can be served by multiple repositories and caches, resulting in many paths being used. Specifically, this dissertation works out the details to improve NDN’s performance in three different aspects: First, we design a congestion control scheme that improves performance when data is retrieved over multiple paths and from multiple repositories. Second, we design a multipath routing protocol that maximizes the path choice at the NDN forwarding plane, while minimizing path length and avoiding loops. Third, we design a novel traffic engineering scheme that distributes traffic hop-by-hop, rather than tunneling traffic between multiple endpoints at the network edge.