Download PDFThe Named-data Link State Routing protocol (NLSR) is an intra-domain routing protocol for Named Data Networking (NDN). It is an application level protocol similar to many IP routing protocols, but NLSR uses NDN’s Interest/Data packets to disseminate routing updates, directly benefiting from NDN’s built-in data authenticity. The initial NLSR design, which was developed in 2013, has undergone significant changes. The new NLSR has been deployed on the NDN testbed since August 2014; its development helped drive the development of the trust/security functionality of NDN libraries as well as a number of features in NFD and ChronoSync. In this paper, we describe the current design and implementation of NLSR, with emphasis on those features that differentiate it from an IP-based link state routing protocol – (1) naming: a hierarchical naming scheme for routers, keys, and routing updates; (2) security: a hierarchical trust model for routing within a single administrative domain; (3) routing information dissemination: using ChronoSync to disseminate routing updates; and (4) multipath routing: a simple way to calculate and rank multiple forwarding options. Although NLSR is designed in the context of a single domain, its design patterns may offer a useful reference for future development of inter-domain routing protocols.
Obsoletes: NLSR: Named-data Link State Routing Protocol