The Missing Piece: On Namespace Management in NDN and How DNSSEC Might Help

Abstract

Names are the cornerstone of every Information-Centric Network (ICN), nonetheless, namespace management has been by far neglected in ICN. A global and scalable namespace management approach is a challenge which not only concerns technical, but also requires attention to non-technical, e.g., organizational issues. In this paper, we present both a clear position on namespace management in ICN and preliminary work on a potential solution. We conceptualize a namespace management system for hierarchical names and introduce a prototype for NDN, which leverages existing DNSSEC equipped DNS infrastructure. Based on this, we are able to implement both technical and non-technical aspects of namespace management. We consider lessons learned and pitfalls from decades of the ever-evolving development of domain name system. As the de facto standard namespace management for the Internet, it is an integral orientation factor for both our concept and its implementation.