Credit: Maralova
Host mobility has been a long-standing challenge in the current Internet architecture. Huge proportions of traffic are now attributed to mobile devices;2 however, despite this prominence, mobility often remains a badly handled concept. Some have recently argued that the main reason for this lies in its choice of what to name.14 The Internet Protocol (IP) names hosts based on their topological network location. Through this, it intrinsically binds the what (the name) to the where (the address). Consequently, a mobile host moving its physical location is often required to change its name creating numerous problems.
Observations such as this have led to a flurry of research looking at how the future Internet could be redesigned. A prominent example is that of information-centric networks (ICNs).14,26,30 ICNs propose a key paradigm shift, which involves replacing the Internet's existing host-based naming scheme with an information-based one instead. This article therefore chooses to follow Shakespeare's advice and ask "What's in a name?" rather than IP's approach of "Where's in a name?"
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