SRAN: Scaling Named Data Networking via Map-and-Encap

2026-07-22

AI Summary

This work addresses the routing scalability challenge in Named Data Networking (NDN) caused by the explosive growth of application name prefixes, which leads to forwarding state explosion. The authors propose SRAN, a novel architecture that introduces the Map-and-Encap mechanism into NDN for the first time. By mapping name prefixes to egress routers at the network edge, SRAN decouples name reachability from topological reachability, enabling core routers to perform stateless forwarding based solely on topology. Leveraging Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) and BitString encoding, SRAN supports multicast mappings to multiple egress points while ensuring consistency through NDN’s native security and data synchronization mechanisms. Experimental results demonstrate that forwarding state scales only with network topology, incurs minimal distribution overhead, and supports real-time adaptation to prefix changes, significantly enhancing system scalability.

Abstract

Network routing scalability is hard to achieve when forwarding state is driven by external entities such as end users or multicast groups. Named Data Networking (NDN) faces this challenge acutely: it fetches data by name, which ties forwarding state to an unbounded number of application name prefixes. This paper presents SRAN, a scalable routing and forwarding architecture for NDN. Building on the Map-and-Encap principle, SRAN separates name-prefix reachability from topological reachability by mapping prefixes to egress routers at the network edge. Consequently, the network core routes and forwards based solely on topological connectivity. SRAN extends this mapping to support multicast by adapting Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER), encoding prefix-to-multiple-egress mappings as a BitString to enable stateless multicast delivery. Implemented on the NDN substrate, SRAN leverages NDN's native security and dataset synchronization for secure routing and prefix-state dissemination, requiring no additional protocol. Evaluation on representative Rocketfuel topologies confirms that the network forwarding state scales with the topology rather than the application-prefix count, and adapts to prefix changes in real time with minimal dissemination overhead.

Problem

• Named Data Networking
• routing scalability
• forwarding state
• name prefixes
• multicast

Innovation

• Named Data Networking
• Map-and-Encap
• Scalable Routing
• Stateless Multicast
• BIER