Information retention for disaster-affected networks using content-centric networking

Abstract

Maintaining communication and information sharing in a disaster situation is a challenging task. A typical consequence of a natural disaster is that communication networks get fragmented. Consequently, information published in one fragment is no longer reachable by users in the other fragments. A number of approaches have been proposed to facilitate information retention in the network, most of them reactive, e.g. using data mules. In this paper we propose proactive measures to share information within the network before it becomes fragmented using Information-Centric Networking (ICN). We have developed a system, using the Content-Centric Networking (CCN) protocol, which proactively replicates content across different parts of the network by taking into account how the network will potentially fragment in the future. We demonstrate the content replication aspect of this system using 16 virtual CCN nodes distributed over 5 potential fragments called “Communities”.