A Scalable Bitwise Multicast Technology in Named Data Networking

Abstract

Named Data Networking (NDN) uses name to indicate content mechanism to divide content, and uses content names for routing and addressing. However, the traditional network devices that support the TCP/IP protocol stack and location-centric communication mechanisms cannot support functions such as in-network storage and multicast distribution of NDN effectively. The performance of NDN routers designed for specific functional platforms is limited, and it is difficult to deploy on a large scale, so the NDN network can only be implemented by software. With the development of data plane languages such as Programmable Protocol-Independent Packet Processors (P4), the practical deployment of NDN becomes achievable. To ensure efficient data distribution in the network, this paper proposes a protocol-independent multicast method according to each binary bit. The P4 language is used to define a bit vector in the data packet intrinsic metadata field, which is used to mark the requested port. When the requested content is returned, the routing node will check which port has requested the content according to the bit vector recorded in the register, and multicast the Data packet. The experimental results show that bitwise multicast technology can eliminate the number of flow tables distributed compared with the dynamic multicast group technology, and reduce the content response delay by 57% compared to unicast transmission technology.