To route or to secure: Tradeoffs in ICNs over MANETs

Information-Centric Networks (ICNs) operating over Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are challenged by the node churn, evolving topologies, and limited resources of the underlying network. The complex interplay of publishers, subscribers, and brokers brings with it a corresponding set of security concerns, where precisely-defined trust boundaries are needed to guarantee the confidentiality and integrity of all data objects in the ecosystem. Building a practical framework that can service users efficiently requires understanding the motivations and actions of the participants. We explore several tradeoffs between efficiency and the security of data objects in such environments, using ICEMAN - a real-wold implementation of an ICN that operates on MANETs. Since our findings are based on an actual system, they have significant implications for building efficient ICNs that have security designed in at the outset (rather than added later when options may be limited). We empirically establish that there is a strong interplay between the need to have more specific information for efficient routing and the need to ensure trust and confidentiality in such a decentralized system.