Tutorial: Towards Data-Centric Battlefields: Named Data Networking Services for Tactical Networks

Description

Approved for 3 CompTIA CEUs: A+, Network; 3 GIAC CPEs

Named Data Networks (NDN) has emerged in recent years as a realization of data-centric networking. In a data-centric network model, the focus of the network and its core services is on fetching named data by the end consumers. NDN uses semantically meaningful application names to name data and secure data directly, enabling NDN to natively support data and origin integrity, in-network opportunistic caching, delay/disruption tolerance, and multicast/multipath forwarding with built-in path optimizations. These features have been shown to provide scores of improvements to network resilience in the face of network disruptions, efficiency in utilizing scarce communication resources, and ease of configuration, all highly desirable features in tactical communication environments.

This tutorial aims at introducing NDN-based services that can be realized in tactical networks to enable a resilient, secure, and efficient battlefield. The tutorial will start with a brief introduction of the NDN architecture and protocols, together with its built-in security support. The focus will then move to NDN-based services in the battlefield, ranging from resilient and scalable packet delivery service to publish-subscribe communication API for general distributed applications and CSfC-compliant security services. We will discuss these services in the context of a notional tactical communication network. We will first characterize the challenges of the tactical communication networks (e.g., loss, delay, disruptions) and then discuss how NDN services can be deployed in this network to enhance its reliability, security, and efficiency. This includes a discussion of: 1) Resilient data delivery services: We will discuss the use of NDN's stateful forwarding, in- network storage and sync protocols to enhance the reliability and data availability in the battlefield. 2) Security services, which are paramount in tactical networks. We will discuss how multi- level security can be realized in an NDN network. We will also discuss how a CSfC- compliant architectures can be leveraged in building such services. 3) Network priority and QoS management service: The disruptive nature of tactical networks makes traffic engineering a desired network functionality. We will discuss how to enable resilient QoS traffic management via a simple pub-sub support that can be built from the existing NDN functional blocks.

Tracks:

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  Continuing Education
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  Technical Tutorials