A Survey of the Research on Future Internet Architectures

When the internet was founded it was created as a simple “host-to-host packet delivery” service, used primarily by academics to transfer simple information. Since then, the usage of the internet has changed considerably. It is more mobile, has changed focus from “host-to-host” delivery to content distribution, and there are many who attempt to threaten its security. Despite these changes, the fundamental architecture of the internet has not changed. Instead of changing the architecture, organizations have accommodated these changes via ad-hoc patches on top of the 40 year old design. This has worked somewhat well, but it is becoming clear that the demands of users are not being met by this current design. This has inspired research across the globe in the design of brand new internet architectures that are built around the ideas of content distribution, mobility, and security.

Research around content distribution focuses on changing the IP layer of the internet. The internet today has many layers built on top of the IP layer which allows for easy modification and keeps it ubiquitous, but it does not account for the type of data being transmitted. Many organizations want to change this layer so that the content is labeled by type as well as its location. This would help with efficiency, but poses challenges in security privacy and scalability. Mobility research focuses on how to change the internet so that it is centered around mobile devices instead of personal computers. Since mobile devices are the most popular way to access the internet, making a mobile focused internet allows for easier extensions to internet architecture. Security research attempts to change the internet architecture so that security is built into the design instead of a layer on top of it. This is one of the most diverse areas of internet architecture research due to its importance, but the main goals are to build a secure internet that is trustworthy and adaptable to new security solutions. This paper is a survey of the research that public and private organizations are doing into each of these areas.