Performance Evaluation of NDN Applications in Low-Interference Mobile Ad Hoc Environments

Abstract

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is an infrastructure-free network where mobile devices are connected wirelessly and can move in arbitrary directions. Mobile ad hoc networks can be utilized in many applications, ranging from sensor networks, autonomous vehicles, battlefield communication, to disaster rescue operations, etc. However, existing TCP/IP based Internet architecture that supports MANET has many limitations, such as dependency on end-to-end IP address-based communication and out-of-band security mechanisms, to enable it to work in an efficient and secured manner. The emerging Named Data Networking (NDN) architecture can help address many such problems fundamentally. NDN is a new information centric network architecture that features name-based data, in-network caching, and built-in security. To test and verify the features of this new paradigm, in this paper, we set up several real and low-interference mobile ad hoc environments using Raspberry Pi-based mini cars and built NDN applications on top of the infrastructure. We examined the performance of the NDN applications with various network settings in both static and mobile modes and demonstrated the effectiveness of NDN architecture in terms of in-network caching and information centric features.