Access Control Mechanisms in Named Data Networks:A Comprehensive Survey

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) has recently emerged as a prominent candidate for the Future Internet Architecture (FIA) that addresses existing issues with the host-centric communication model of the current TCP/IP-based Internet. Named Data Networking (NDN) is one of the most recent and active ICN architectures that provides a clean slate approach for Internet communication. NDN provides intrinsic content security where security is directly provided to the content instead of communication channel. Among other security aspects, Access Control (AC) rules specify the privileges for the entities that can access the content. In TCP/IP-based AC systems, due to the client-server communication model, the servers control which client can access a particular content. In contrast, ICN-based networks use content names to drive communication and decouple the content from its original location. This phenomenon leads to the loss of control over the content causing different challenges for the realization of efficient AC mechanisms. To date, considerable efforts have been made to develop various AC mechanisms in NDN. In this paper, we provide a detailed and comprehensive survey of the AC mechanisms in NDN. We follow a holistic approach towards AC in NDN where we first summarize the ICN paradigm, describe the changes from channel-based security to content-based security and highlight different cryptographic algorithms and security protocols in NDN. We then classify the existing AC mechanisms into two main categories: Encryption-based AC and Encryption-independent AC. Each category has different classes based on the working principle of AC (e.g., Attribute-based AC, Name-based AC, Identity-based AC, etc). Finally, we present the lessons learned from the existing AC mechanisms and identify the challenges of NDN-based AC at large, highlighting future research directions for the community.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication by the ACM Computing Surveys. The final version will be published by the AC

ANDaNA: Anonymous Named Data Networking Application

Content-centric networking -- also known as information-centric networking (ICN) -- shifts emphasis from hosts and interfaces (as in today's Internet) to data. Named data becomes addressable and routable, while locations that currently store that data become irrelevant to applications. Named Data Networking (NDN) is a large collaborative research effort that exemplifies the content-centric approach to networking. NDN has some innate privacy-friendly features, such as lack of source and destination addresses on packets. However, as discussed in this paper, NDN architecture prompts some privacy concerns mainly stemming from the semantic richness of names. We examine privacy-relevant characteristics of NDN and present an initial attempt to achieve communication privacy. Specifically, we design an NDN add-on tool, called ANDaNA, that borrows a number of features from Tor. As we demonstrate via experiments, it provides comparable anonymity with lower relative overhead.Comment: NDSS 2012 - Proceedings of the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, San Diego, California, US

The MacGuffin and the Net: Taking Internet Listeners Seriously

To date, listeners and readers play little more than bit parts in First Amendment jurisprudence. The advent of digital networked communication over the Internet supports moving these interests to center stage in free speech doctrine and offers new empirical data to evaluate the regulation of online information. Such a shift will have important and unexpected consequences for other areas, including ones seemingly orthogonal to First Amendment concerns. This Essay explores likely shifts in areas that include intellectual property, tort, and civil procedure, all of which have been able to neglect certain free speech issues because of the lack of listener interests in the canon. For good or ill, these doctrines will be forced to evolve by free speech precedent that prioritizes consumers

Assessing Canada\u27s Copyright Law in the Digital Context: Digital Locks, Open Licenses, and the Limits of Legislative Change

This dissertation examines Canadas copyright law reform in the information age. The overarching theme of my research underscores the importance of considering the purpose(s) of copyright law and the public interest while navigating the copyright law reform process. Additionally, I advocate that in regulating the influence of technology in the copyright system, the default approach should aim to objectively balance the interests of stakeholders to the extent possible. Ultimately, recognizing that stakeholders will continue to develop pragmatic responses to the changing landscape through private contracting and technological measures, I suggest that embracing regulatory pluralism is the most promising path towards achieving balanced copyright in the digital age. I develop these arguments over six chapters

Assessing Canada's Copyright Law in the Digital Context: Digital Locks, Open Licenses, and the Limits of Legislative Change

This dissertation examines Canadas copyright law reform in the information age. The overarching theme of my research underscores the importance of considering the purpose(s) of copyright law and the public interest while navigating the copyright law reform process. Additionally, I advocate that in regulating the influence of technology in the copyright system, the default approach should aim to objectively balance the interests of stakeholders to the extent possible. Ultimately, recognizing that stakeholders will continue to develop pragmatic responses to the changing landscape through private contracting and technological measures, I suggest that embracing regulatory pluralism is the most promising path towards achieving balanced copyright in the digital age. I develop these arguments over six chapters

Internet Walled Gardens: Artificial Internet Limitations and Digital Inequalities

There is a growing body of literature on digital inequalities with an interest in mending inequalities in a world that increasingly relies on the digital by identifying and isolating the factors that predict digital opportunities. However, there is little which addresses differences in Internet access where infrastructural access in terms of availability and affordability is not an issue. In addition, artificially limiting Internet access is becoming normalised, with limitations used liberally as means for control, neglecting the potential implications of such measures. The inspiration for this research came from the small body of knowledge available on the effect of artificial Internet limitations on digital inequalities and the consequences of Internet controls on how people make use of the Internet. This research highlights these potential consequences, whether deliberate or not, and link them to outcomes of Internet use, while shedding light on the effectiveness of such limitations. The research was motivated by a belief in the potential the Internet allows as an open platform for a universe with equal access and opportunities for the people. The first part of the research studied artificial Internet limitations in three communities, Bahrain, Estonia, and Singapore, as a factor in determining digital inequalities through two studies aimed at assessing change in opportunities, measured as differences in tangible outcomes of Internet use, as a function of artificial Internet limitations. The findings showed that artificial Internet limitations do indeed affect digital opportunities, producing lower satisfaction, with achievement opportunities attained when the individual is able to circumvent the controls. The second part of the research is a practical implementation of the model developed in the first part to predict digital opportunities in one of the projects to reach new Internet users, commonly referred to as Next Billion(s). Facebook’s Free Basics platform was chosen as an example. The platform provides access to a set of services without incurring data charges in a form of zero-rating. The innate limitations of the platform were proven to limit the potential for individual to access any content not within the walled garden of the platform with near-zero circumvention potential, leaving opportunities provided by the platform to wither in front of the limitations set. People with access only to that platform remain passive consumers and part of disconnected and excluded communities, as the platform limits the potential for meaningful participation in the network society