n contrast to IP-based, host-oriented, Internet architecture, content centric networking (CCN) emphasizes content by making it directly addressable and routable. Endpoints communicate based on named data instead of IP addresses. CCN is characterized by the basic exchange of content request messages (called “Interests”) and content return messages (called “Content Objects”). It is considered an information-centric networking (ICN) architecture.
The goals of CCN are to provide a more secure, flexible and scalable network thereby addressing the Internet’s modern-day requirements for secure content distribution on a massive scale to a diverse set of end devices. CCN embodies a security model that explicitly secures individual pieces of content rather than securing the connection or “pipe”. It provides flexibility by using names instead of IP addresses. Additionally, named and secured content resides in distributed caches automatically populated on demand or selectively pre-populated. When requested by name, CCN delivers named content to the user from the nearest cache, traversing fewer network hops, eliminating redundant requests, and consuming less resources overall. CCN began as a research project at the Palo Alto Research Cente (PARC) in 2007. The first software release (CCNx 0.1) was made available in 2009.[1] There are a number of derivative and related buzzwords, such as named data networking.