Comparative Study of Content-Centric vs. Content Delivery Networks: Quantitative Viewpoints

You may remember the battle between Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and IP/Ethernet in late 90s. When the ATM was first conceived, it was believed as the only viable technology that will allow true broadband networking services. Many research results strongly supported such beliefs for ATM, however, the markets today are not in favor of ATM any longer. Recently, Content-Centric Networking (CCN) is architected to bring significant advantages over current IP-based Internet, especially in reducing the traffic by eliminating redundant data transmissions. However, IP-based solutions such as Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) have already been widely deployed to cope with the same problem. Some comparison studies on this issue have been known, but they were done only in a qualitative manner. We have a strong sense of deja vu of the late 90s' battle. Qualitative comparison showing advantages and disadvantages of those technologies have failed to predict the final winner in the real world. This paper compares CCN and CDN in a quantitative manner by considering feasible CCN router implementation and typical CDN deployment topologies. Although we admit that our result may not be able to predict the final winner in the complex and uncertain future for now, we believe that it provides valuable insights in comparing the two continuously evolving networking technologies.