The 33rd Annual IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM'14), April 27th - May 2nd, 2014, Toronto, Canada

Keynote Speech


Title: Information Centric Networking to Support Disaster Management

Speaker: K.K. Ramakrishnan (WinLab, Rutgers University, USA.)

Abstract:

In the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, network infrastructures likely suffer severe damage posing challenges to support normal communications. The traditional approaches to provide critical information are likely to be disrupted, thus requiring alternative means for providing timely information. The capability to exchange simple and critical messages with large portions of the affected population, including first-responders and government authorities is key to disaster management. In the GreenICN project, we have been examining the role of Information Centric Networks to provide this important capability.

We have been examining the use of a name-based communication framework for disaster management. We propose a name-name architectural framework that we call Internames, where communication takes place among entities identified by names, without a static binding to their current location.  By not having a static binding between the name of a communication entity and its current location, we allow entities to be mobile, enable them to be reached by any of a number of basic communication primitives, enable communication to span networks with different technologies and allow for disconnected operation. Furthermore, with the ability to communicate between names, the communication path can be dynamically bound to any of a number of end-points, and the end-points (both source and destination) could change as needed. Another capability is to use name-based replication of content that enables ad-hoc communication with spatial and temporal scoping and prioritization of named messages. We propose an enhanced ICN approach to provide communication resilience in such disruption prone, delay-tolerant networks.