Custodian-based routing in content-centric networks

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a computing device, a request for a piece of content that indicates the content by name;
• determining whether the content is available locally;
• in response to the content not being available locally, determining a custodian identifier of a remote custodian device that stores the content, wherein determining the custodian identifier involves determining a preference level of the remote custodian device, and performing a content-prefix-to-custodian lookup to obtain a mapping from a prefix of the content's name to the custodian identifier, and wherein the custodian identifier does not indicate a network address for the remote custodian device;
• identifying a communication endpoint, which corresponds to the custodian identifier of the remote custodian device, through which the computing device is to obtain the content, wherein the communication endpoint indicates one of a plurality of communication interfaces associated with the remote custodian device;
• verifying that the computing device satisfies one or more conditions for accessing a namespace specified by the content name's prefix, wherein the namespace is associated with the remote custodian device's communication endpoint;
• determining a network address mapped to the identified communication endpoint of the remote custodian device;
• and
• establishing a connection to the communication endpoint using the mapped network address to obtain the requested content.

A computing device, comprising:

• a receiving mechanism configured to receive a request for a piece of content that indicates the content by name;
• a determining mechanism configured to determine whether the content is available locally;
• a routing agent, in response to the content not being available locally, configured to:
• determine a custodian identifier of a remote custodian device that stores the content, wherein determining the custodian identifier involves determining a preference level of the remote custodian device, and performing a content-prefix-to-custodian lookup to obtain a mapping from a prefix of the content's name to the custodian identifier, and wherein the custodian identifier does not indicate a network address for the remote custodian device;
• identify a communication endpoint, which corresponds to the custodian identifier of the remote custodian device, through which the computing device is to obtain the content, wherein the communication endpoint indicates one of a plurality of communication interfaces associated with the remote custodian device;
• verify that the computing device satisfies one or more conditions for accessing a namespace specified by the content name's prefix, wherein the namespace is associated with the remote custodian device's communication endpoint;
• and
• determining a network address mapped to the identified communication endpoint of the remote custodian device;
• and
• a connection mechanism configured to establish a connection to the communication endpoint using the mapped network address to obtain the requested content.