3 Things You Should Know About Named Data Networking

UCLA and Cisco recently joined others in the industry in a consortium to discuss the future of TCP/IP. Since the 70s, the industry has operated under a set of networking standards designed to protect communication as it traveled from one server to another. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is a packet-based system that is used both on private and public networks.

As the internet has grown and matured, however, IT experts have questioned the security of the original TCP/IP setup. As Washington University computer science professor Patrick Crowley points out, there is a demand for a system that sends information efficiently while also protecting privacy. TCP/IP was designed during a much earlier time. Named Data Networking (NDN) technology is emerging as a much better solution for today’s internet architecture, giving businesses and consumers a much higher level of security when sending and receiving data.

While NDN is a relatively new concept, the movement to make it the industry standard has been ongoing for some time. Here are three major things you should know about NDN.

NDN Removes Numeric-Based Naming

As IT administrators know, TCP/IP addressing employs a complicated system of naming servers and hosts. These numbers are generally presented as four sets of numbers separated by a period. An example of an IP address is 255.255.255.0. NDN seeks to replace that complicated, difficult-to-remember naming system with a more user-friendly one.

NDN Will Outlast TCP/IP

This naming system is also beneficial because the four-set numbering system has a finite future, while NDN is limitless. If the industry continues on its current course, the numbers available will be exhausted, leaving industry leaders to come up with an alternative anyway.

Work on NDN is Industry-Wide

The consortium attendees are only a sampling of the many organizations backing the switch. In 2010, the National Science Foundation put more than $13.5 million into the project, publicly expressing its belief that NDN is the future. The money went to a variety of organizations who have been hard at work on the project, examining every possible angle of a world in which NDN predominates.

While the discussion about NDN is ongoing, its future as the top networking protocol seems inevitable. Since it promises to provide a greater level of security to users, especially businesses, NDN is understandably a preferred choice for many who work in information technology today. As more businesses migrate their important data to the cloud, internet security will be more important than ever.