Micro-Chain: Towards the Use of NDN Microservices.

Network Functions Virtualization (NFVs) and Information-Centric Networking (ICN) are promising networking paradigms for the future of the Internet. In addition, microservice architecture offers an attractive alternative to monolithic architecture for developing applications. Employing ICN NFVs implemented as microservices enables the use of ICN in generic devices with the ability to scale on demand to address specific application requirements. However, working in this context is challenging due to the complexity of managing and coordinating microservices at runtime, especially for a cluster of nodes. This paper proposes Micro-Chain, an architecture for deploying, scaling, and chaining ICN microservices. The architecture consists of five modules and their interrelationships. The basic operations of the proposed architecture were validated in a scalability scenario within a node cluster, where CPU and memory thresholds were utilized as parameters for scaling decisions. The performed experiment revealed a microservices placement issue that resulted in lower throughput.