High fidelity content-centric experiments with Mini-CCNx

Experimentally-driven research is crucial to the evaluation of any networking technology. In this paper, we focus on research experiments with Mini-CCNx, a convenient yet high-fidelity prototyping tool to evaluate Information-Centric Networking (ICN) proposals that bring named pieces of content as the main element of networks. More specifically, Mini-CCNx is tailored for the Named Data Networking (NDN) model and fills an existing gap in generally available experimental platforms. Using container-based emulation and resource isolation techniques, Mini-CCNx appears as a flexible, scalable, high-fidelity, and low-cost tool in support of NDN research. To evaluate Mini-CCNx as a valid research platform, we first reproduce a series of experiments from the NDN literature. We then run routing experiments on an emulated version of the real NDN testbed and provide insights into open research topics such as behavior of the OSPFN routing protocol, forwarding strategies, and network resiliency.