Internet DRAFT - draft-wang-icnrg-icn-edge
draft-wang-icnrg-icn-edge
icnrg L. Wang
Internet-Draft L. Geng
Intended status: Informational China Mobile
Expires: January 3, 2019 July 02, 2018
Consideration on Applying ICN to Edge Computing
draft-wang-icnrg-icn-edge-01
Abstract
Aiming at research on applying Information Centric Networking (ICN)
technology to Edge Computing, this document analyzes the reasons and
opportunities of applying ICN to EC. As well, towards this end,
technical considerations are described and relevant scenarios are
shown in the document. Benefits of deploying ICN at edge is analyzed
in the document.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Opportunitiesof Applying ICN to EC . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1. ICN Enable Traffic Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2. Functionality Complementary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.3. Practicality of ICN Deployment on Edge . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Technical consideration of applying ICN to Edge Computing . . 4
4.1. Optimizing EC Network Disconnection Solution . . . . . . 4
4.2. Reducing Traffic Congestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.3. Security Consideration of Using ICN . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.4. Content Centric Networking values edge devices . . . . . 6
4.5. Partial deployment of ICN on Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Reverse and Cooperation with CDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1. Introduction
Information Centric Networking (ICN) takes significant technical
revolution and fundamental change on communication and networking.
It uses content/information centric networking to replace traditional
address-centric networking which change the existing networking model
essentially. It can also be regarded an Internet structure evolution
from host-centric structure to data-centric structure which means
accessing data by naming. This structure enables to make the data
relating application more independent of its location and
transmission method. What's more, security mechanism is based on
information instead of host and the caching in forwarding process
that promotes huge information transmission efficiently. It is very
promising to apply ICN to some popular network architecture.
Meanwhile, Edge Computing (EC) is becoming important network
architecture because of its outstanding performance in real-time,
reliability, security, etc. It deploys services on the edge of
network to be close to consumers, and offers decentralized function
to enable excellent properties in local computing, storage,
connectivity and so on. At present, Edge Computing works broadly on
IoT and industrial verticals such as Energy, Manufacturing, Smart
City and Smart Grid.
Therefore, it is worth attempting the possibility of using ICN on EC.
ICN naturally supports decentralized caching, self authentication and
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multicast that can enable EC deployment. The combination of ICN and
EC is able to offer a win-win approach and benefit mutually for
maximum performance. In the following sections, we will seek the
opportunities of applying ICN to EC, and outline the correlative
properties of both. The technical consideration of the approach and
relevant scenarios will be described as well.
2. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
EC- Edge Computing, an network architecture that provides local
compute, storage and connectivity services
Other ICN related words used in this document are interpreted as
description in [ICNRG-Terminology].
3. Opportunitiesof Applying ICN to EC
3.1. ICN Enable Traffic Convergence
In traditional networks most typical service nodes are deployed in
centre, so the network flow are transferred from the centre to the
edge and downlink traffic is dominant. But as the IoT highly
developed, a large amount of devices are deployed on the edge, which,
therefore results in considerable uplink traffic. The requirement of
traffic service flattening requests the technique that is able to
make local communication for traffic convergence. This could be the
entry point of applying ICN to EC.
3.2. Functionality Complementary
Both ICN and EC possess some correlative properties, such as
decentralized deployment, local communication capacity, producing
abundant uplink traffic flow, etc. However, there are also some
other properties they posses respectively which are complementary.
For ICN, caching and forwarding are two basic functions which are
more about connectivity. But in practical cases, ICN node devices
such as gateways demand for light computing and storage functions as
well. Light computing and storage can make the network more dynamic,
flexible and enable some AI deployments as well. Fortunately, edge
computing is able to support storage and computing naturally. A
combination of both ICN and edge computing can be mutually benefitted
for maximum performance.
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3.3. Practicality of ICN Deployment on Edge
TCP/IP network model has been used for quite a while and is worldwide
deployed now. No matter according to cost, difficulty, risk or other
consideration, it is not realistic to deploy ICN on the whole
network. However, the partial deployment of ICN can have a chance,
such as ICN over IP or IP over ICN. Deploying ICN on edge service
not only can help to mitigate the ICN whole-network deployment
complexity, but also makes the network model more flexible.
4. Technical consideration of applying ICN to Edge Computing
4.1. Optimizing EC Network Disconnection Solution
In some scenarios that the network is not able to offer end to end
communication such as power failure or natural disasters that could
result in the interruption of the network and other local
disconnections problems. Often such failure can cause a series of
accidents and even chain reaction, resulting in the loss of
enterprises and production. In the case, edge computing enable to
supply service which is closer to the edge of data generation and
business control deployment, making the computation much closer to
the data source. Even if the network fails to get connected, the
device can rely on local networks for data communication and
processing.
However, (a) sometimes the data stored on the edge is "staleness" due
to incapacity of updating timely. This could result in the mistake
or staleness data transmission. (b) Furthermore, the storage space on
edge is limited. For instance, it is not able to update new content
if there is no spare space when storage on edge which normally is
small storage capacity, is full. This can also cause the (a)
problem.
In ICN network, the content is cached along the path it delivery. So
the objective content can be from the source node or the other
content caching nodes. When the network is disconnected, the caching
content or data in decentralized nodes can be used in edge computing.
Caching algorithm of ICN is able to solve two problems stated in
previous paragraph by updating data efficiently and dynamically.
This benefits from the caching replacement policies of ICN. The
policies, such as LRU or LFU, provide mechanism how long or how often
the data will be updated. Therefore the data is either the newest or
the most popular. Decentralized content caching of ICN strengthens
EC network disconnection solution and make more flexible networking.
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4.2. Reducing Traffic Congestion
In IoT industry, there are a huge number of devices deployed on the
edge which result in a significant amount of uplink flow traffic. In
EC, the prominent quantity of traffic is easy to cause traffic
congestion.
In ICN network, the data content not only from the source node, but
also it is cached in other nodes along the delivery path. So when
the edge node request the data, it is not necessary to deliver data
from the source node. For instance, in the figure, if node 1 is
source node. When node3 requests data from node1, the content will
be cached in both node A and node B. So next time when node4 needs
the same content data, node B will deliver it, and vice versa. In
the case, the traffic is not from node1(source node) to node3 or
node4 anymore, but mainly from A to B. Therefore, ICN decentralized
content caching enable traffic convergence.to reduce traffic
congestion.
Data Traffic
+------------------------+
| |
+----+ +----+
+-----+ A +-----+ +----+ B +------+
| +----+ | | +----+ |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
+--------+ +-------+ +----+ +------+
| node 1 | | node 2| |node3 node4 |
+--------+ +-------+ +----+ +------+
Source Node
Figure 1
Traffic Convergence in ICN
4.3. Security Consideration of Using ICN
Security problem is crucial and urgent to the EC applications.
Firstly, there are many devices on edge are exposed to users which is
easy to be attacked. Secondly, although authority level on edge is
lower than host and cloud, there are more people can get access to
the devices and application. This is in consideration of the
consumer convenience and deployment flexibility. Hence, application
and services are vulnerable on edge.
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Instead of binding security to host node, ICN advocates the model of
trust in content. This offers host-independent security mechanism
which focuses more on securing information object and content trust.
It means host attack no more can interfere edge application.
Furthermore, self-certify names model of ICN enable to verify the
binding between public key and self-certify name in distributed
system without relying on a third party. This can reduce the
security risk of involving a third party.
4.4. Content Centric Networking values edge devices
No matter ICN or CCN, they all promote content centric communication
model. Independent from host node, naming on edge node gain more
valuation on edge devices.
4.5. Partial deployment of ICN on Edge
In consideration of cost and complexity of deploying ICN, it is not
necessary to use ICN in the whole network. ICN using on edge is
enough to highlight its advantage. Furthermore, there can be a
corporation between ICN edge service and IP network.
5. Reverse and Cooperation with CDN
Content Delivery Network (CDN) system, based on IP, composes a couple
of servers that deliver content to a user, based on the geographic
locations of the user, the origin resource and the CND server nodes.
Normally, the resource is distributed in a downlink traffice in
figure2.
However, in a ICN network, resource or origin node is not the central
node anymore. An edge device can be the origin node that provides
the resource which is delivered to ICN servers, and further
distributed to the receiver nodes. As a consequence, the routing is
from edge to central, or there will be an uplink traffic. This just
reverses the CDN Mechanism, which is shown in figure3.
Therefore, deploying ICN network at edge that pulls the requested
data from resource edge node to the servers can cooperate with CDN
network. An ICN/CDN server is anticipated to translate the protocol
between both and deliver the data to the receiver nodes which can be
ICN network or IP network.
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+----------+
|Origin/Web|
|SerVer |
+---+------+
|
+-------------------+ Traffic
| | | from origin to edge
| | | downlink
| | |
| | |
v v v
+---------+ +-------+ +------+
| CDN ++ | CND | | CND |...
| SERVER| | SERVER| |SERVER|
++---+----+ +--+----+ +---+--+
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
v v v v
+-----++ ++----+ +-+---+ +---+---+
|EDGE | |EDGE | |EDGE |...| EDGE |
+------+ +-----+ +-----+ +-------+
Figure2 CDN Mechanism
ICN/CDN SERVER deliver data to receivers
+----------+ +------+
+---------->+ ICN/CDN SERVE+---------->+Receiver
^ | | | +Node--+
| +----------+ |
| | +------+
| +---------->+Receiver
+----+-----+ +Node--+
| ICN server
+-+--------+
^ ^
| | Traffic from Edge to ICN server
| | uplink, reversed CND
| |
+---++ +-+--+
EdgeNode|Origin | |
|Resource| |
+----+ +----+
Figure3 ICN Mechanism
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6. Conclusion
This draft described the correlative properties of ICN and EC to
analyze the opportunity of applying ICN to edge computing. The
traffic uplink flow model is the entry point of this research. We
could see ICN deployment is beneficial to EC by combining the
outstanding performances of both. Furthermore, a win-win model is
schemed in the document by means of mutual complementing. However,
there are still challenges on deploying ICN on edge such as high
speed mobility, fast context resolution and so on. These questions
need to be answered in the future.
7. Informative References
[I-D.boucadair-connectivity-provisioning-protocol]
Boucadair, M., Jacquenet, C., Zhang, D., and P.
Georgatsos, "Connectivity Provisioning Negotiation
Protocol (CPNP)", draft-boucadair-connectivity-
provisioning-protocol-15 (work in progress), December
2017.
[ICNRG-Terminology]
"Information-Centric Networking (ICN): CCN and NDN
Terminology", <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/
draft-irtf-icnrg-terminology/>.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC5440] Vasseur, JP., Ed. and JL. Le Roux, Ed., "Path Computation
Element (PCE) Communication Protocol (PCEP)", RFC 5440,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5440, March 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5440>.
Authors' Addresses
Lei Wang
China Mobile
Beijing 100053
China
Email: jifengyiwl@163.com
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Liang Geng
China Mobile
Beijing 100053
China
Email: gengliang@chinamobile.com
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