Fog-based CDN architecture using ICN approach for efficient large-scale content distribution

Abstract

Along with continuing evolution of Internet and its applications, the Content Delivery Network (CDN) has become a hot topic with both opportunities and challenges. CDN was mainly proposed to solve the content availability and download time issues by delivering the content through edge cache servers deployed around the world. The CDN technology helps optimize the traffic on the original servers but with the increasing demand of Internet contents the edge servers become overloaded. In this article, a new perspective on edge content delivery service is described to scale such bottleneck and optimize the overall delivery performance. The Fog computing technology has been emerged recently with salient capabilities motivated us to bring it at CDN model. We propose to introduce Fog nodes at the edge of CDN edges to provide another level of content delivery but it is based on content’s names not its location, which may like Information Centric Networking (ICN). ICN is a new networking architecture, much more adapted to the current Internet usage (user care only about the content or service they want and not about the machine that host it). This approach not only solves the bottleneck problem but also extend the CDN more to the network edge in which the Fog node acts as local content delivery with high reliability and scalability of content access. This novel solution is expected to extend the reach, scale and functionality of content delivery networks (CDNs).